The Hobbit or There and Back Again. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955. Second Edition, Seventh Impression, in Eight Impression Jacket. Illustrated cloth boards, with illustrated end papers. Publisher’s pictorial dust jacket designed by the author. the flaps of the jacket are toned & spotted; the cloth boards have faint sunning to top margins at head & tail of spine, spotting to the preliminary leaves & fore-edges, but overall a nice bright copy.

Illustrated in black and white and with one coloured frontispiece plate by the author.

Tolkien’s prelude to ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ first published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, in which the true significance of Bilbo’s success in riddles, and the nature of Gollum’s ‘Precious’ is revealed.

An early printing, matching the appearance & format of the first edition.