I had someone ask for some research help and can't find my sources offhand - hopefully someone here can assist more?

Original question:


From Hammond's Bibliography (~p. 15) - the Raft Elves image appeared in the 2nd impression only of the UK edition (no color plates in 1st impression, no plates in 3rd or fourth impressions). Not enough information on the US impressions - no mention of the "rat-elves" that I could find. I do recall reading up on this - maybe in a Tolkien Collector article?

This was around for a long time, in my UK (listed as Sixth impression 1971) Hardback Hobbit if you look at the page Listing the Illustrations in the book (this is the only place it occurs and it is right at the start of the book), it is described as "Bilbo comes to the huts of the Ratelves".

The actual illustration is correct as Tolkien wrote the text on the picture. It is corrected in the UK 1978 edition, so was probably fixed in the middle of the seventies in the UK, may still have continued in US editions though.

My tenth Impression 1975 Hobbit (UK) still has the "ratelves" misprint so it looks as if the 1978 is the first with the correction.

The Hammond & Anderson Bibliography implies (p. 40) that the misprint 'Ratelves' was introduced with the 'third edition' (A&U) of 1966, presumably with its first printing, which was identified as 'sixteenth printing' overall (p. 39). It also states the error was continued in the "new 'eighth impression'" of 1974, which was reset (p. 58).

Thanks all, I just couldn't find what I was looking for in Hammond's biblio - need to get my glasses checked I guess. Also thanks for the other data points on your copies. Much appreciated!