THE HOBBIT, Or There and Back Again.

First printing of the third edition. Publisher's original green cloth with wraparound illustration and dark blue titles to the spine and upper board, in dustwrapper. Map endpapers, four colour plates and eight black and white illustrations after drawings by the author. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the spine tips and corners very slightly bumped, the spine lightly faded, the cloth otherwise bright and fresh. There contents, with tiny creases at the the corners of a few pages, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that is toned to the spine and has two tiny closed tears to the bottom edge of the rear panel. Not price-clipped (20s net to the front flap). An excellent example, uncommon thus.

The correct first printing of the last edition to carry significant revisions by the author. The printers publishing information on the copyright page to the first printing of this third edition is misleading due to an error in the publication chronology. What should have read as: 'Fifteenth Impression 1965' followed by 'Third Edition (Sixteenth Impression) 1966' was actually set down as: 'Third Edition (Fifteenth Impression) 1966' followed by 'Sixteenth Impression 1966'. The Third Edition (Fifteenth Impression) 1966 does not exist and the error was never corrected. Tolkien's revisions were made to align the narrative more closely to The Lord of the Rings and to cosmological developments from his still unpublished Quenta Silmarillion (as it stood at that time). This third edition also introduced a new version of the history of Erebor. In the original story, Erebor was founded by Thorin's grandfather Thror, and the Arkenstone discovered by his father Thrain. However, to correct a note on the map saying that Thrain had been King Under the Mountain, Tolkien introduced a distant ancestor Thrain I in this text, who both founded the kingdom and discovered the Arkenstone. (Hammond A3i).