Early American Editions of The Hobbit - The First Edition

The First Edition

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 of The Hobbit and all printings of The Lord of the Rings until the mid 1960s.

Some consider the first American edition of The Hobbit to be 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 lettering on the tan cloth cover is printed in deep blue. The bowing hobbit emblem on the front and the dwarf's hood emblem on the spine are filled with bright red. Regrettably, however, the publisher 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.

Surviving dust-jackets on the first edition are exceedingly rare. It is not known whether that is because of attrition or because some printings were not jacketed or because lots directed to some markets did not come with jackets. What is known is that jackets have been reported on more than one of the printings and most commonly on the first printing. The jacket 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.

A series of changes to the book suggest Houghton Mifflin printed the first edition several times. The earliest copies show the same bowing hobbit emblem on the title page as is visible on the cover, but in outline. At some point, however, the publisher replaced the emblem on the title page with the rather less appealing seated flautist. This earliest printing also has no half-title page. The first two printings mistakenly identify Chapter VII as Chapter VI on page 118, a defect corrected in the third. While generally similar in all the variants, the binding's cloth changes in color and texture in step with other changes. The first printing's table of illustrations lists Thrór's map as the front endpaper, in accordance with the text (page 30) but contradicting the actual order. The later printings of the first edition list the Wilderland map as the front endpaper, in accordance with the actual order but contradicting the text. This mess was not fully straightened out until the second edition.

(Regarding the bowing Hobbit emblem, some say the boots the hobbit wears conflicted with the text's description of a bare-footed hobbit, prompting the publisher to replace it. Yet the device comes directly from Tolkien's picture of Bilbo bowing to Smaug on his horde of treasure. Tolkien defended the boots to an astute reader by explaining that Bilbo had acquired them along the way.)

Hammond & Anderson refer to these variations as "states" within the "first printing", and recorded only two: one with the bowing hobbit on the title page, and one with the seated flautist. Historically Houghton Mifflin's practice has been to place the publication year at the foot of the title page for the first printings of its first editions. All of first edition Hobbit copies show the 1938 date on the title page, perhaps discouraging bibliographers from ascribing different printings to them.

Others, however, reason that Houghton Mifflin must have printed the volumes several distinct times between 1938 and the second edition of 1951. They point out that none of the variations could have come about during the course of a single printing run. Also, thirteen years elapsed between the first printing and the appearance of the second edition; it seems improbable that Houghton Mifflin would not have reprinted the book (presuming the arrangements with Allen & Unwin permitted). And finally, while the bowing hobbit (first printing) version appears on the market uncommonly, first editions as a whole show up scarcely less often than all the printings of the second edition combined.

Corrections to the text block as described above account for three distinct printings. A strong case can be made for at least one more. Some books with third printing characteristics come bound in one of three tan book cloths that differ from those used in the other printings. The earlier bindings contain a yellowish-green pall that two of these later bindings lack completely. Another difference from earlier printings can be found in the endpaper maps. They are printed on stock that has not been calendered as smoothly as the earlier printings. Lastly, slight deterioration of the printing plates betrays their age. Type defects apparently unique to this last printing are found in the table below as broken A.

This last printing may have consisted of several printing runs or perhaps was contracted out to different printers. While no deliberate changes to the text block have been noted, the binding cloth and the text block's paper stock both changed at times, and flaws developed in the printing plates over time. One of the cloth variants is similar to the first printing's, but even yellower. Another shows an even weave with light, very even oatmeal coloring that can even seem faintly pink in some light. Its cloth shows deep, vivid blues in the lettering, whereas the others look obviously paler. Yet another variant carries a variegated linen-like weave wherein individual threads can stand out for several centimeters. This latter is as dark as the binding of the third printing (while lacking the yellow cast), but the coloring is so uneven that it might be mistaken as soiled even when clean. Soiling on the other variants, on the other hand, is immediately apparent.

The textblock's paper stock for the "oatmeal" variant is brighter than the others. This is most apparent when comparing the text block edges of the three variants. It is known from owner inscriptions that this lighter variant appeared no later than 1946, and that the variegated linen appeared on the market no later than 1942. No dates have been seen on the yellower variant. While not enough dates have been seen to be truly useful, the relative order of the printing of the sheets associated with each binding can be discerned from the type flaws described in the table below.

It is known from Hammond & Anderson that the first printing appeared on March 1, 1938. A library copy of the third printing has been seen with a check-out date of November 28, 1938. If we accept, then, that the first edition consisted of multiple runs on the evidence of emendations to the text block, the most surprising fact arising out of the dating is that the first three printings appeared within nine months of each other. It is not known whether a planned larger, single run was shortened and broken up for the corrections, or whether demand was simply strong enough to warrant new runs with corrections made opportunistically.

Examples have been found with the maps as free leaves, rather than pasted down. Invariably these have been a library edition. Most of those seen have been bound in orange cloth. The front cover mimics the first edition dust jacket, silk-screened in black. Because several identical examples of the library edition have been reported, and because the endpaper maps show no evidence of having been glued down originally, it would not have come about as ad hoc rebinds by libraries. Rather, a major bindery is assumed to have sourced the text block directly from the publisher. Not enough specimens have been examined to know if library bindings were supplied for all the printings. This library edition trimmed a full 5 mm from the text block's outside margin and a combined 3 mm vertically.

Other library bindings have been reported. A red library binding with yellow title and a simple geometric design in black, and including free-leaf maps, has been seen with the stamp "New Method Book Bindery", a company well known in the trade at the time (later becoming "Bound to Stay Bound Books Inc." ). This version probably would have been through arrangement with the publisher. Plain bindings, generally without maps, show up; these are presumed to have been one-off rebinds.

All printings of the first edition measure 15.0 x 21.0 cm. They contain 310 numbered pages.