The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1961 (second edition, thirteenth impression overall)/ September 1937.
Octavo, 315, [1] (colophon) pages (first four pages blank, with another four blank pages after the colophon) with 8 illustrations (7 full-page) plus a colour frontispiece and a different two-colour map across each endpaper.
Light green papered boards blocked in black; light uneven fading to the spine (largely mirroring the light areas on the spine of the dustwrapper); free endpapers a little tanned; a couple of tiny spots of foxing to the title leaf and frontispiece; an excellent copy with the excellent price-clipped dustwrapper very slightly foxed, lightly rubbed at the extremities with minimal wear to the corner-tips, with the spine lightly tanned and slightly chipped (with two short closed tears) at the head.
All illustrations, including the dustwrapper artwork, are by the author. A later (ninth) printing of Hammond and Anderson A3c (1951, second edition, fifth impression overall); later printings in this edition correct several errors and include a short note at the end of the book 'If you are interested in Hobbits you will learn a lot more about them in "The Lord of the Rings"'. The 'new reset edition' of 1995, based on the third edition of 1966, contains an interesting 'Note on the Text'. It points out that the first impression of the second edition, published in 1951 (being the fifth impression overall) contained 'a significantly revised portion of Chapter V, Riddles in the Dark, which was done in order to bring the storyline of "The Hobbit" more in line with its sequel, "The Lord of the Rings", then in progress'.
Item #131687
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