The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Overview:

• Title: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
• Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
• Year: 1938
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Price: $2.50
• Pages: 310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Type: Novel
• Title Reference: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
• Notes: First American edition. Sources of information include The Whole Science Fiction Data Base 8, ABEbooks, and Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. Publ date and price confirmed NY Herald Tribune 1938-03-01 p15 "Books Out Today"
  
  Pictorial map endpapers. Illustrated with four color plates and nine black and white illustrations.
  
  The following notes are modeled in part on those for the 1st ed., with source The Annotated Hobbit (1st ed., 1988).
  • There were two printings of the 1st US ed. during 1938. They may be distinguished by the title page decoration   bowing hobbit (1st printing)   Houghton Mifflin colophon (2nd printing) The first (published -03-01) was advertised at the top of the publisher's spring list (children's books). About 3000 copies were sold by June and Houghton Mifflin decided to reannounce the book at the head of its fall list. About 5000 copies of the two printings were sold by the end of 1938.
  • Tolkien completed five color illustrations of the novel at the suggestion of Houghton Mifflin (there were none in the Allen & Unwin 1st ed.), for which the publisher paid $100.   The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water   Rivendell   Bilbo woke with the early sun in his eyes [in the Eyrie]   Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves   Conversation with Smaug Houghton Mifflin used four in the book, all but the Raft-elves (Allen & Unwin used all but the Eyrie in its 2nd printing). Houghton Mifflin also used the first and last on the dustjacket as front and back cover illustrations.