How to identify a first edition of The Hobbit (1937)

The points that distinguish the 1937 Allen & Unwin first edition, first impression of The Hobbit from later printings, book clubs and facsimiles.

· 2 min read

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again was first published in London by George Allen & Unwin in September 1937. A first impression in its original dust jacket is one of the great modern firsts, and also one of the most faked and misdescribed. Here’s what to check.

The basics of the first impression

  • Publisher and date: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1937, with the date on the title page.
  • Print run: a small first impression, usually given as around 1,500 copies.
  • Binding: green cloth stamped in dark blue, with a design by Tolkien.
  • Illustrations: Tolkien’s black-and-white illustrations and maps. The first impression is generally described as having no colour plates; colour plates were added in a later impression.

A copy with colour plates deserves a close look at its impression statement before you treat it as a first impression.

The dust jacket

The jacket, also designed by Tolkien, is a major part of the value. A point often cited for the first-state jacket is a misspelling of Lewis Carroll’s real name, “Dodgeson” for “Dodgson”, in the jacket blurb. Ask the seller about it, and about any hand corrections.

Because the jacket matters so much, check whether it is original to the book, whether it has been restored, and whether it is a later jacket or a facsimile. Facsimile jackets are widely sold and openly labelled as such when new, but they don’t always stay labelled.

The first American edition

Houghton Mifflin published the first US edition in 1938. It’s collectible in its own right but is not the true first edition, which is the 1937 London printing.

Copies that are often confused with the first

  • Later impressions of the first edition, which state the impression on the copyright page.
  • Book club editions, usually smaller, on cheaper paper and without a price on the jacket.
  • Facsimile editions published for anniversaries, which reproduce the look of the first edition but state their real date on the copyright page.

Before you buy

Ask for photos of the title page, the copyright page, the binding and both jacket flaps. For a book at this level, buy from a specialist bookseller or an auction house that guarantees the description, and compare with a standard bibliography such as Hammond and Anderson’s J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography.

Keep watch

True first impressions appear rarely, at specialist booksellers and major auctions. A ShelfProud search such as hobbit 1937 first edition or hobbit allen unwin 1937 tells you the moment one is listed anywhere it looks.

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