The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
1988 Quality Paperback Book Club Edition
Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston
ISBN: 0395177111*
Trade paperback
xvi, 320 pp.
Cover design by Andrew Becker
Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien
Hammond Page Ref.: p. 63
Tolkien Collector Ref.: Issue no. 13, p. 22
Notes
Typeset as for the Houghton Mifflin 1987 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition and including the new Foreword by Christopher Tolkien reproducing two pages from the manuscript of The Hobbit, together with six further illustrations and several extracts from letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
1st Printing: 1988
At least three printings issued.
Differences between two distinct printings are seen on copyright pages, titles pages and back covers. Priority is unknown but is perhaps distinguishable by using gutter codes. It may be that a 1987 printing (or printings) included the 50th Anniversary statement on its title page and back cover while later printings returned to the style of the 1973 Collector’s Edition. Additionally, the presence of the Tolkien monogram on the copyright pages of the proposed later printings (2nd and 3rd) shows (perhaps) that they were released prior to 1990 (when the device was first added to Tolkien publications).
*This ISBN is shared with the 1973 Collector’s Edition and the 1987 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition.
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| The Hobbit (1973) | The Hobbit (1987) |