Tolkien, J.R.R. | "May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks"

Tolkien, J.R.R.

The Hobbit or There and Back Again. London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1937

8vo (190 x 135 mm). 10 illustrations and cartographical endpapers in red and black by the author, 2pp. of publisher's advertisements at end; scattered light foxing. Publisher's illustrated cloth, after the author's designs, top edge green; spine slightly cocked, stray brown spots to cloth, edges foxed. Original pictorial dust-jacket after the author's design and illustrations, hand correction to rear flap denoting first issue; lightly toned, tiny nicks at head of spine and short closed tear at tail, short closed tear to front and rear panel each. Housed in a quarter leather folding case.

First edition, first issue of the first book in Tolkien's saga of Middle Earth. 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 its original print run of 1,500 copies three months after publication, leading the publishers to order more novels from Tolkien.

Author C.S. Lewis, fellow Oxford don and close friend, commented on this reception. "For it must be understood that this is a children's book only in the sense that the first of many readings can be undertaken in the nursery ... The Hobbit will be funnier to its youngest readers, and only years later, at a tenth or twentieth reading, will they begin to realize what deft scholarship and profound reflection have gone to make everything in it so ripe, so friendly, and in its way so true. Prediction is dangerous; but The Hobbit may well prove a classic."

An unrestored copy of this masterpiece of twentieth-century fantasy, rare in this condition

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Hammond A3a