Tolkien, J.R.R.

8vo. Publisher’s illustrated cloth, after the author’s designs as are the endpaper maps, slightly cocked. Original pictorial dust-jacket after the author’s design and illustrations, hand correction to rear flap denoting first issue, ends of jacket spine panel barely rubbed, one small chip from lower edge of rear panel, but a generally superior copy.

Hammond A3a

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First edition. J.R.R. Tolkien began writing The Hobbit, or There and Back Again,as a Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University. Tolkien’s creative perspective was born from a childhood spent briefly in South Africa and then rural England, a short but wretched tour during World War I, and an avid fascination with German philology. 

Although it was originally billed as a children’s book, The Hobbit attracted a varied audience and has been wildly popular since its initial publication. Tolkien built upon the tradition of fantasy literature developed by George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll, and the folk tales of Arabian Nights by inventing a new language—Elvish—and making it accessible for modern-day readers. Such creativity brought rave reviews for The Hobbit, which sold out of its original print run of 1,500 copies three months after publication.