The Hobbit.

TOLKIEN, J.R.R.

Item Number: 137696

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966.

Early printing of this collector’s edition of Tolkien’s classic first novel. Octavo, original boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine and front panel, with illustrations by Tolkien. Fine in the original slipcase. Uncommon in this condition.

"In enchanted Middle-earth, a small, comfort-loving Hobbit is awakened from his slumbers by a visitor who tells of lost treasure. Before Bilbo Baggins returns home again, he journeys past wizards and elves, talkative trees and treasure-guarding dragons, all swirling in cosmic battle between good and evil. J.R.R. Tolkien's fully realized fantasy world won over generations of children, and dazzled adults with its deft interweaving of medieval legend and made-up languages, maps, and creatures. Tolkien legitimized the modern fantasy genre, and provided the 1960's counterculture with antiwar, back-to-Eden icons" (NYPL Books of the Century 199).