UK 1st/1st Title page (From the collection of Trotter)

The Hobbit

or
There and Back
Again

by
J.R.R. Tolkien

London
George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Museum Street

UK 1st/1st Copyright/Contents page (From the collection of Trotter)

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1937

All rights reserved
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
UNWIN BROTHERS LTD., WOKING

CONTENTS

I An Unexpected Party II
II Roast Mutton 38
III A Short Rest 56
IV Over Hill and Under Hill 66
V Riddles in the Dark 80
VI Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire 97
VII Queer Lodgings 118
VIII Flies and Spiders 146
IX Barrels Out of Bond 176
X A Warm Welcome 195
XI On the Doorstep 208
XII Inside Information 218
XIII Not at Home 240
XIV Fire and Water 252
XV The Gathering of the Clouds 262
XVI A Thief in the Night 273
XVII The Clouds Burst 280
XVIII The Return Journey 292
XIX The Last Stage 301

UK 1st/1st List of Illustrations page (From the collection of Trotter)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Thror's Map endpaper I - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Hill: Hobbiton across the Water frontispiece - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Trolls 49 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Mountain-path 68 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Misty Mountains looking West 117 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
Beorn's Hall 126 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
Mirkwood to face p. 146 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Elvenking's Gate 177 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
Lake Town 196 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Front Gate 209 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
The Hall at Bag-End 307 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added
Map of Wilderland endpaper 2 - Link to Illustrations Guide to be added

• Chip the glasses and crack the plates - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Far over the misty mountains cold - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• O! What are you doing - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Clap! Snap! The black crack! - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Fifteen birds in five fir trees - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• The wind was on the withered heath - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Old fat spider spinning in a tree! - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Roll-Roll-Roll-Roll - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• The King beneath the mountains - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Under the mountain dark and tall - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• The dragon is withered - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Sing all ye joyful! - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien
  
• Roads go ever, ever on - Tolkien Poetry - Digital Tolkien

The history of the writing of The Hobbit is sketched by Humphrey Carpenter in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, and will beis fully told by John D. Rateliff in a forthcoming bookA History of the Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond & Douglas A. Anderson (Oak Knoll Press)

The details of print run sizes are taken from correspondence between the American publisher Houghton Mifflin and its British counterpart George Allen & Unwin, and from Allen & Unwin publishing ledgers and associated correspondence...

First Edition
First Impression 1937
May 1937 - 1,500 copies printed by Unwin Brothers. Jackets printed separately by FGS
July 1937 - 28 Travellers' Samples*
July 1937 - 11 folded and collated sets of sheets supplied by the printers to A&U. They may have been subsequently bound
July 1937 - 15 copies bound in paper covers**
August 1937 - 6 copies bound in paper covers**
A total of 1,488 copies were bound in the Allen & Unwin trade binding:
August 1937 - 131 copies bound
September 1937 - 438 copies bound
October 1937 - 31 copies bound
October 1937 - 300 copies bound
November 1937 - 100 copies bound
November 1937 - 260 copies bound
December 1937 - 228 copies bound
* These samples usually consist of the first two signatures of the book bound up for use by the publisher's sales representatives.
** These copies are likely to have been supplied as review copies.

Printing and Binding Early Editions of The Hobbit - https://tolkienbooks.net/php/earlyhobbits.php#1st

Dust-Jacket Blurb

1st/1st UK Hobbit (from the collection of Lanceformation)

UK 1st/1st Left Dust-jacket flap (From the collection of LanceFormation)

UK 1st/1st Right Dust-jacket flap (From the collection of Trotter)

"If you care for journeys there and back, out of the comfortable Western world, over the edge of the Wild, and home again, and can take an interest in a humble hero (blessed with a little wisdom and a little courage and considerable good luck), here is the record of such a journey and such a traveller. The period is the ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men, when the famous forest of Mirkwood was still standing, and the mountains were full of danger. In following the path of this humble adventurer, you will learn by the way (as he did)—if you do not already know all about these things—much about trolls, goblins, dwarves and elves, and get some glimpses into the history and politics of a neglected but important period.

For Mr Bilbo Baggins visited various notable persons ; conversed with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent ; and was present, rather unwillingly, at the Battle of Five Armies. This is all the more remarkable, since he was a hobbit. Hobbits have hitherto been passed over in history and legend, perhaps because they as a rule preferred comfort to excitement. But this account, based on his personal memoirs, of the one exciting year in the otherwise quiet life of Mr. Baggins will give you a fair idea of this estimable people now (it is said) becoming rather rare. They do not like noise.

J.R.R. Tolkien is Rawlinson and Bosworth professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and fellow of Pembroke College. He has four children and The Hobbit was written for them, and read aloud to them in nursery days, which is of course the way in which practically all the immortal children’s stories have come into being. But the fame of the story spread beyond his immediate family and the manuscript of The Hobbit was lent to friends in Oxford and read to their children. Though they are utterly dissimilar in character, the birth of The Hobbit recalls very strongly that of Alice in Wonderland. Here again a professor of an abstruse subject is at play ; while Alice in Wonderland is full of crazy conundrums, The Hobbit has constant echoes of magic and mythology culled from a wide and exact knowledge. Dodgeson at first did not think it worth publishing his tale of Wonderland and Professor Tolkien—but not his publishers—still remains to be convinced that anybody will want to read his most delightful history of a Hobbit’s journey."

UK Hobbit Dustjacket Blurb (Changes between impressions) - https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... iewtopic.php?post_id=9217

Errors noted

p. 14, II. 17-18, 'find morning' for 'fine morning'
p. 17, II. 29-30, ' "So you have got here at last!" what [for That] was what he was going to say'
p. 25, I. 11, 'more fierce then fire' for 'more fierce than fire'
p. 62, II. 2-3, 'uncomfortable palpitating' for 'uncomfortable, palpitating'
p. 62, I. 31, 'their bruises their tempers and their hopes' for 'their bruises, their tempers and their hopes'
p. 64, I. 21, 'where the thrush knocks' for 'when the thrush knocks'
p. 85, I. 10, 'far under under the mountains' for 'far under the mountains'
p. 104, I. 17, 'back tops' for 'black tops'
p. 147, I. 16, 'nor what you call' for 'not what you call'
p. 183, I. 26, '”Very' for '“Very' (reversed double quotation mark)
p. 205, I. 32, 'dwarves good feeling' for 'dwarves' good feeling'
p. 210, I. 29, 'above stream' for 'above the stream'
p. 216, I. 4, 'leas' for 'least'
p. 215, I. 13, 'door step' for 'doorstep'
p. 229, II. 16-17, 'you imagination' for 'your imagination'
p. 248, I. 32, 'nay breakfast' for 'any breakfast'

J.R.R. Tolkien A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond & Douglas A. Anderson (Oak Knoll Press)