The Hobbit | 1937, first edition, first impression with original unrestored first state dustjacket

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

First edition, first impression, in the original first-state dust jacket, with the celebrated “Dodgeson” error corrected by hand in ink on the rear flap.

Octavo. A near fine to fine example in the publisher’s original light green cloth, lettered and decorated in dark blue, tight and square, with clean pages and no inscriptions or ownership marks. With Tolkien’s map endpapers printed in red and black, frontispiece and illustrations throughout.

The original dust jacket is the true first state, carrying the misspelling “Dodgeson” for “Dodgson” on the rear flap, corrected by hand in black ink by the publisher. Richly coloured and entirely unrestored, the jacket is price-clipped and shows only light edge wear. A remarkably well-preserved, near fine example of one of the most desirable dust jackets in twentieth-century literature.

The Hobbit was first published by George Allen & Unwin on 21 September 1937 in an initial printing of just 1,500 copies, which had sold out by December of that year. Tolkien himself designed the binding, map endpapers and extraordinary wraparound dust jacket, giving the first edition a visual identity almost entirely of his own creation.

The rear flap of the first-issue jacket drew a comparison between Tolkien and Lewis Carroll, but incorrectly rendered Carroll’s real surname, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, as “Dodgeson”. The error was corrected by hand in ink on surviving jackets before subsequent printings altered the jacket and text. Examples retaining this contemporary correction are recognised as the first issue of the original 1937 jacket and have long been among the defining points sought by collectors.

This jacket retains Tolkien’s original four-colour wraparound design on the correct thin period stock, with the hand-corrected “Dodgeson” error to the rear flap and the purely pictorial rear panel. The printing, paper, toning and natural wear at the folds are all consistent with an original 1937 jacket, with no evidence of restoration, facsimile elements or later replacement.

An exceptional example of the true first edition of The Hobbit, preserved in its extraordinarily rare original, unrestored first-state dust jacket.

Hammond & Anderson A3a.