The first and second editions of The Hobbit, both British and American, are considered the most collectible and command the highest prices in the collectors' market. These volumes generally were printed in small runs and sold before The Hobbit reached cult status in the 1960s. Hence demand for them now vastly exceeds supply.
Prices of the American edition tend to lag those of the British because they are not considered 'original' but also because of the extraordinary difficulty of identifying many of them. Unlike the British editions, the American editions generally do not state their printing or copyright date. Hence people cannot be sure what they have or might be buying and therefore what it might be worth.
Very roughly, earlier printings are valued more than later. In particular, the first edition, with its very different account of Riddles in the Dark, is in great demand. However, the fifth overall impression, or the first printing of the second edition, seems to be garnering prices as high as the British fourth printing, which was the cheapest and most common of the first edition printings. Later second edition printings are valued much less than first edition printings or the first printing of the second edition, and all command about the same prices, condition being equal.
The presence of the matching dust jacket often doubles the value of any of these printings, particularly if it is in good shape. However, because the second American edition changes its binding color from printing to printing, they gain considerable charm displayed in array without their dust jackets.
Houghton Mifflin Co. of Boston and New York published the first American edition of the Hobbit in spring of 1938 following its September, 1937 debut in the United Kingdom from George Allen & Unwin LTD. For this first edition Houghton Mifflin printed the sheets in the United States, a practice they abandoned in later printings for both The Hobbit and all printings of The Lord of the Rings until the 1960s.
The first American edition of The Hobbit is perhaps the most beautifully designed of any edition. Houghton Mifflin chose to print it in a larger size and on heavier stock than Allen & Unwin's first edition, and they chose to include four color plates of Tolkien's original artwork. Margins are ample and the typesetting well crafted for readability. The tan cloth cover is printed in blue for lettering and red for the bowing hobbit emblem on the front and the dwarf's hood emblem on the spine. Regrettably, however, they chose to print the end-paper maps in red only, instead of the black and red chosen by Allen & Unwin. They also mistakenly put the Wilderland map in front and the Lonely Mountain map in back, the reverse of the description in the text. Chapter VII (Out of the Frying Pan) is incorrectly identified as 'Chapter VI'.
The dust jacket on the first edition is exceedingly rare. It is a medium blue field all around. The front announces the title in white, beneath which appears, in color and framed in red, Tolkien's illustration of Hobbiton. The reverse displays Tolkien's illustration of Smaug on his trove, also in color.
There are three 'states' of the first American printing. The earliest shows on the title page the same bowing hobbit emblem visible on the cover. At some point, however, the boots the hobbit wears in the emblem were acknowledged to conflict with the text's description of a bare-footed hobbit, so the publisher replaced the emblem with the rather less appealing seated flautist. Whether one calls this development a variant state or a second printing is a distinction of taste. The text did not change. The third state corrects the Chapter VII heading but is otherwise identical to the second.
All states of the first edition measure 15.0 x 21.0 cm. They contain 310 numbered pages.
There are no American printings corresponding to the British third and fourth impressions.
American (Houghton Mifflin Co) The Hobbit impressions from the 5th through the 15th were bound from sheets printed in Great Britain, corresponding to the George Allen & Unwin LTD printings of the second edition. Unlike the AU printings, the American copies do not state the printing until the 20th in the second edition with the exceptions of the 11th and 12th, which state the full printing history. This makes them very difficult to identify in isolation. The following list of "points" was developed by this author by comparing unknown American printings to known British printings.
The American second editions from the 5th through 15th printings measure 12.7 x 19.0 cm, contain 315 numbered pages, and have end-paper maps printed in black, white, and red.
American second edition dustjackets are nearly identical to British, except that Houghton Mifflin is printed at the bottom of the spine instead of George Allen Unwin. The design is basically unchanged from the original 1937 edition of The Hobbit. Dust jackets declare the impression and often may be used to ascertain at least the approximate impression of the book. Sometimes, however, the dust jacket did not come with the book originally, and sometimes dust jackets from one printing were put on books of a neighboring printing.
The 5th and 6th impression signature marks are at the bottom center:
The 7th, 8th, and 9th impression signature marks start with [B] on page 17, henceforth incrementing one letter every 32 pages.
Signature marks change on the 10th impression: [A*] at the bottom of the Table of Contents; [B] at bottom left of page 33 etc. These signature marks remain unchanged through the 15th impression.
Paper weight varies from impression to impression. Generally the earlier impressions are thinner than the later. Measurements exclude the binding and end papers; they start from the half-title page and extend to the last story page. The leaves should be pressed tightly when measuring. Measurements are rounded to the nearest half millimeter.
Commencing with the 7th impression, the final page of the story advertises The Lord of the Rings. The distance between the advertisement and the main body of the text varies from impression to impression. Here the distance is measured from the baseline of the last line of the story's text down to the baseline of the first line of the advertisement.
Starting with the 7th impression, the first "o" on page 22 is broken at 5:00 o'clock.
The 13th impression, on the bottom of page 315, displays an illegible "ab" in "you will learn a lot more about them". The 7th through 12th impressions, on the other hand, are clean. The illegible "ab" persists throughout remaining printings of the second edition.
Houghton Mifflin enlarged the books to 14.0 x 21.0 cm commencing with the 16th printing. At that point they abandoned importing sheets from George Allen and Unwin LTD. These later US printings of the second edition have no correspondence to AU impressions. Houghton Mifflin dropped the red color from the maps and removed the color frontispiece so that no color is left in the book's interior. The 16th and remainding printings of the second edition are bound in light green with lettering in dark blue. Beginning with the 20th impression the volumes state the printing number on the reverse of the title page. The 24th (?) impression is the final impression of the second edition.
By settling on a single binding color and dropping all color from the interior, Houghton Mifflin cheapened the book and killed the charm of the second edition. The later printings are not considered to be as 'collectible' as the earlier printings.
Later Houghton Mifflin editions of The Hobbit are readily identified by their ISBN numbers and copyright page. They are not generally considered 'collectible', although first printings of the 1973 "Collector's Edition" in green simulated leather occasionally go for a bit of a premium. See English-language editions of The Hobbit for a complete list.The First Edition
The Second Edition
Basics
Dust Jackets
Collation
[B] on page 17, henceforth incrementing one letter every 16 pages.
[*] on page 307.
[*] on page 307.Paper
5th impression: 18.0mm
6th impression: 20.0mm
7th impression: 19.0mm
8th impression: 16.0mm
9th impression: 16.0mm
10th impression: 19.0mm
11th impression: 20.0mm
12th impression: 22.5mm
13th impression: 24.0mm
14th impression: 23.0mm
15th impression: 19.5mm
Binding
The 6th impression is the first of the American-style covers.
Some 7th impressions are bound in khaki; all other points identical.
Advertisements
(Note that the 6th impression advertises The Lord of the Rings on the reverse of the half-title page but not on the last page of the text. This distinguishes the 6th impression.)Printing Flaws
Later Printings of Second Edition
Other Houghton Mifflin Editions