So I thought I would show the different cover variations I have of the 1st UK Paperback release of the Hobbit, featuring Tolkiens “Death of Smaug” image on the cover. I believe that these are all the different variations, but if anybody knows of any others then please let me know.

Note: it is a great image, however I’ve always thought it curious that they should put such a big spoiler on the book cover.

It was first published in 1966 by Unwin Books and all versions are the 3rd Edition. The first one produced was a 16th Impression of the Hobbit and the same design continued for the whole series of 19 Impressions, however the impressions printed in the books are not consistent. The first 6 releases have impressions 16 to 21 (dated 1966 to 1969), the 7th has an impression of 7 (dated 1969), 8 to 10 have repeated impressions 19 to 21 (but dated 1970 to 1971) and 11 to 19 have impressions 11 to 20 (dated 1971 to 1975).

An interesting design feature of this version is that the wording on the spine faces right, normally books have the wording facing left.

Apologies that the some of the images, the quality of my copies of the books are not great.

I have 7 different variations of the book, impressions 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 19 and 20.







The various different aspects to be found are as follows:
Size
Front cover price
Front cover publisher
Back cover publisher
Back cover publisher logo
Back cover publisher logo position
Back cover price
Back cover reference type
Back cover book list
Back cover artist credit
Spine publisher logo
Spine book number
Inside cover book list

The first 7 impressions are the same. The aspects to look out for are:
a; the price on the from cover of “8s 6d net”.
b; the Unwin logo on the spine.
c; the position of the Unwin logo on the back cover.
d; the position of the “An early sketch by the author” text on the back cover.
e; the list of books in the series on the back cover.
f; the “65” on the bottom of the spine, which refers to the book number of the Hobbit in the series of books listed on the back cover.



The 8th impression (printed 19th Impression 1970) has the first changes:
a; price removed from front cover.
b: book list removed from back cover and added to the inside of the front cover, with more books added to the list (the Hobbit at 65).
c; Unwin log moved on the back cover.
d; the position of the “An early sketch by the author” text on the back cover.
e; price of “10s: £0.50” added to the back cover.
f; “SBN 823707 7” added to the back cover.



The 9th impression (printed 20th Impression 1970) has some small changes:
a; the “65” book number on the spine is slightly bigger.
b; price changed to “£0.50 = 10s” on the back cover.
c; “SBN 823707 7” changed to “ISBN 0 823707 7” on the back cover.



The 10th impression (printed 21st Impression 1971) has some small changes:
a; change in style of the Unwin logo on the spine.
b; change in style of the Unwin logo on the back cover.



The 11th to 18th impressions are the same, with the following changes:
a; the book size is slightly smaller, from 183x121 to 179x121.
b; price changed to “£0.60” on the back cover.
c; “ISBN 0 823707 7” changed to “ISBN 0 04 823707 7” on the back cover.



The 19th impression has a small change:
a; price changed to “£0.65” on the back cover.



The 20th impression, the last in the series, has the following changes:
a; the publishers name removed from the front cover.
b; the publishers logo changed on to George Alan and Unwin on the spine.
c; “65” book number removed from the spine, as the book list removed.
d; publishers name removed from the back cover.
e: publishers logo removed from the back cover.
f; price changed to “£0.95” on the back cover.