The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Notes

• "First Published in 1937" on copyright page. [Currey].
• Publication date from The Tolkien Library. [also The Annotated Hobbit, p3]
• The First Issue dust jacket can be recognized by the hand correction in ink, of the 'e' in the misspelled 'Dodgeson', on the back inside flap (ref: The Tolkien Library).
• Green cloth boards impressed with a dragon, both front and back, and with a long range of mountains along the top including the spine; designed by J. R. R. Tolkien. [expanded with ref: The Annotated Hobbit, p3]
• Wrap-around dustjacket illustration by Tolkien entire image.
• The following information for this edition is taken from TolkienBooks.net: An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography. [augmented in brackets with ref: The Annotated Hobbit, p2-5]:

  There were four impressions of the First Edition, all featuring Thror's Map and the Map of Wilderland on the endpapers, together with the original version of the encounter with Gollum.
  
  1st Impression 1937 – Includes the standard eight black and white illustrations plus The Hill and Mirkwood. No colour illustrations. 1.488 copies bound. An additional 21 copies were bound in paper covers - review copies?
  
  2nd Impression 1937 – Includes four colour illustrations in addition to the standard eight black and white illustrations - the black and white illustrations of The Hill and Mirkwood were removed from this and later printings. 1,900 copies bound. An additional 423 unbound copies were destroyed in a warehouse fire in November 1940. ["[A] reprint was needed before Christmas". Allen & Unwin used four of five colour illustrations prepared by Tolkien for Houghton Mifflin (below), with no increase in price]
  
  3rd Impression 1942 – Includes a colour frontispiece in addition to the standard eight black and white illustrations. This was a cheaper edition produced to the Book Production War Economy Standard. 1.509 copies bound.
  
  4th Impression 1946 - Similar to the 3rd Impression. 4,032 copies bound.
  
  The Standard Eight Black & White Illustrations
  Many editions include a series of eight black and white illustrations - In some editions these have been coloured by H.E. Riddett.
  

  • The Trolls
  • The Mountain-path
  • The Misty Mountains looking West
  • Beorn's Hall
  • The Elvenking's Gate
  • Lake Town
  • The Front Gate
  • The Hall at Bag-End

  Colour Illustrations
  When there is only a colour frontispiece present the illustration is The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water. Prior to 1974 some editions included four colour illustrations. These were:

  • The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water
  • Rivendell
  • Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves
  • Conversation with Smaug

  [Tolkien completed five colour illustrations of the novel in 1937 for its US publisher Houghton Mifflin. The other, third in narrative sequence, illustrated the eagle's eyrie, namely:

  • Bilbo awoke with the sun in his eyes

  Source: The Annotated Hobbit]

Price 7/6 -- advertisement Manchester Guardian 1937-09-28 p7. -- advertisement The Observer 1937-12-19 p6 "Second edition with new four-colour illustrations" (later called the 1st edition, 2nd printing) -- also atop review column "New Novels" by J.M.C. The Times of India 1938-01-21 p6 ("Allen and Unwin, 7s, 6d"); with substantial review of this one under the heading "A Fairy Story"