Details
TOLKIEN, J.R.R (1892-1973). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937.

First edition of The Hobbit, in an unrestored first issue dust-jacket.

"The Hobbit began as an amusement for the Tolkien children, and reached print rather unexpectedly, a typescript of it having been shown to Stanley Unwin by a former pupil of Tolkien's. Once published, however, it was an equally unexpected success" (ODNB). "The world's best-selling single work of fiction" (J.R.R. Tolkien, Life and Legend, p.45), until Harry Potter, it introduces "an entirely new mythological race of 'hobbits' who, like their representative Bilbo Baggins, are solid, respectable, anachronistically English, and, as appears when Bilbo is sent off by the wizard Gandalf to help recover the lost treasure of the dwarves from the dragon Smaug, capable of unsuspected resource" (ibid.). The Hobbit remains a major landmark of fantasy literature. The present copy is in the first issue dust-jacket, with "Dodgson" corrected in ink on the rear flap. Currey 476; Hammond A3a.

Octavo. Frontispiece and nine further illustrations in the text. Original green cloth lettered and decorated in dark blue, cartographic endpapers, top edge green. Publisher's illustrated dust-jacket, printed in blue, black, and green (spine panel a little darkened with small losses to ends and at top edge of rear panel, several short closed tears and creases.) Custom half morocco clamshell box.
Provenance
Printed bookplate designed by Winifred Bromhall to half-title (space for owner's name has been left blank)

From the library of J. R. R. Tolkien. 1911 The Wanderings of Peoples by A. C. Haddon. Cambridge: at the University Press. First edition, illustrated with five folding maps. From the library of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, inscribed to the front endpaper in his striking hand, John Reuel Tolkien, Exeter Coll Oxford, June 1914. Publisher's red cloth, the spine discoloured, the corners lightly bumped with a few scuffs to the edges, including black scuffs to the lower corner of the front board. Blackwell's label to the front pastedown; Tolkien's ownership inscription to the front endpaper. Small closed tear to the lower edge of p.17-20, with some minor crinkling to the lower edge to surrounding leaves, else bright.

'The Wanderings of People' by Alfred Cort Haddon is an anthropological work, an early study into migration and significant global instances: 'The cause of a migration is due to one set of circumstances and its direction to another'. The work contains seven chapters studing specific migrations, including on Europe, Africa, America and Asia & Oceania, and is illustrated with five folding maps to the rear.

A previously undocumented book from the collection of JRR Tolkien, with his ownership inscription during his time at Exeter College, and purchased from Blackwell's. Although free of annotations or marginal notes by Tolkien, the existence of this book and the timing of the ownership inscription is fascinating in the context of Tolkien's Hobbit, Lord of the Rings trilogy and wider Middle-Earth literature, with journeys and the journeys of groups so central thematically to his Legendarium - so encapsulated by the full title of The Hobbit: 'The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again'.

Provenance: gifted from The Professor to his son, John Francis Reuel Tolkien. It was purchased from John Tolkien by the father of our vendor while a student at the University College of North Staffordshire (now Keele University).

8vo. (1)

Features: From the university book collection of J. R. R. Tolkien, with his ownership inscription
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publisher Location: Cambridge
Publication Date: 1911
Binding: Hardcover
Edition: First

J.R.R. Tolkien, writer, artist, scholar and linguist is to be honoured in Westminster Abbey in Poets’ Corner alongside his close friend and fellow writer, C.S. Lewis.

A major new memorial celebrating Tolkien’s creative vision and storytelling by artist Stephen Broadbent will be revealed at a dedication ceremony in Spring 2027, which is also the 90th anniversary year of The Hobbit and 50th anniversary year of The Silmarillion.

The new memorial has been inspired by Tolkien’s Tree of Tales, which he called the Tree of Amalion. Featuring the imagery of a tree in a forest as its central theme, it will be a significant new artwork for the Abbey, inlaid vertically within a stone pillar in the south transept and rising 2.5 metres high.

Predominantly made from native woods found in the UK, it will include a piece of the iconic black pine, known as ‘Tolkien’s tree’, which was felled from Oxford University’s Botanic Garden in 2014. The tree, a Pinus nigra, was a favourite of Tolkien during his time in Oxford.

Stephen Broadbent working on a prototype of the Tolkien memorial, August 2026. Credit: Jonny Nolan

Thanks to Bill Fliss (of Marquette University & their Anduin system of scanned JRR Tolkien manuscripts), Chad has plotted the locations of the individual Nazgûl throughout The Fellowship of the Ring Book 1, along with JRR's thoughts on their evolving strategy in reclaiming the One Ring from its bearer.

This is a highly-informative NEW INFORMATION presentation straight from JRR's pen that Chad has given at 3 conferences this summer.