A rare copy of ‘The Hobbit' is found in England

Boston Globe

2 days ago

The first edition, first impression of 'The Hobbit' -- the literature-reshaping, generation-defining epic by J.R.R. Tolkien that has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide -- is up for auction on Auctioneum's website. It quickly passed a presale estimate of 10,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds (about $13,000 to $16,000), and was up to 19,000 pounds (more than $25,000) on Monday, with bidding set to close Wednesday evening.
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Such a copy is remarkably rare: Only about 1,500 were printed in September 1937. The way the book was found -- after decades tucked away in a home library -- may have been even more unusual.
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'The idea that one sat untouched on a shelf for so many years without anyone realizing its value is not just unusual,' Pieter Collier, a Tolkien specialist and bookseller, wrote in an email. 'It's astonishing.'
First editions of 'The Hobbit' have surfaced before, and can prove very valuable at auction. One copy, given by Tolkien to a student, sold for 137,000 pounds in an auction in 2015. Another sold for 60,000 pounds. But few are in as good condition as the one in Bristol, said Oliver Bayliss, the owner of Bayliss Rare Books in London, who thinks it could fetch more than 50,000 pounds.
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Riley knows little about the person who owned the book most recently: The clean-out was overseen by an executor, she said, and she does not know any family members of the person who died.
She does know that the book came from the library of the Priestley family, who had ties to the University of Oxford, where Tolkien was a professor, and who had corresponded with Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis, who also taught at Oxford.
It is possible, she said, that the original owners knew Tolkien, perhaps 'through C.S. Lewis and through them running in the same circles.'
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