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The Hobbit (1938)

The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
1938 First U.S. Edition
Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston / New York
ISBN: N/A
Hardcover in dust-jacket
312 pp.*
Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien
Hammond Page Ref.: pp. 16-20
Tolkien Collector Ref.: Issue no. 30, pp. 16-30 (Frisby)

Notes
Typeset as for the Allen & Unwin 1937 First Edition.

1st Printing: March 1, 1938
2nd Printing: November, 1938**
3rd Printing: November, 1938**
4th Printing: September, 1944**

The printing list above is a possible explanation for the variations in the states of the First Edition. The chief characteristic differences*** between them are as follows:
                                                                                                                                                                                       

  1st Printing
  • Title page has a figure of a bowing hobbit.
  • On page 9, the list of illustrations erroneously begins with Thror’s Map and ends with Map of Wilderland.
  • On page 118, ‘Chapter VII’ is mislabeled as ‘Chapter VI’.
  2nd Printing
  • Title page has an emblem of a seated flautist (continued for the following printings).
  • On page 9, the list of illustrations is corrected to show the actual placement of the maps (continued for the following printings).
  • On page 118, ‘Chapter VII’ is mislabeled as ‘Chapter VI’.
  3rd Printing
  • On page 118, the ‘Chapter VII’ heading is corrected (continued for the following printings).
  4th Printing
  • Three variants have been proposed based on damaged type not seen in the earlier printings.

Print runs: Houghton Mifflin records show two entries for 1938 (printed domestically): 5,000 copies and 2,500 copies. It is unclear which printings these refer to.

Jacket price: $2.50.

For detailed information see Early American editions of The Hobbit by Daan Strebe and ‘Identifying First and Second Edition Printings of the Houghton Mifflin Hobbit’ by Steven M. Frisby (a very useful guide printed in the The Tolkien Collector, Issue no. 30, pp. 16-32 in October, 2009).

*The 1st Printing has 312 pp. (page 311/312 being blank) while later printings have 310 pp. (with no final blank page).

**These dates are the earliest confirmed “as seen in publisher’s records, owner’s inscriptions, or library stamps” (Strebe).

***There are several determining points which are detailed in various sources including the Wikipedia page and guide noted above (some examples being that the 1st Printing has no half-title page, its frontispiece is attached to the stub of an excised second page whereas the second page is integral in later printings, and [it is currently believed that] the cloth binding on some copies of the 1st Printing has bands of horizontal ribbing while all later printings do not).