Rare book: The Hobbit; or There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien. First edition, first state (with bowing hobbit device on the title page, the list of illustrations erroneously listing Thror's Map first, and Chapter VII mislabeled as "Chapter VI"). Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938. Hardcover bound in the publisher's original tan cloth with title stamped in blue and bowing Hobbit image in red, 6 x 8.25, 310 pages. Book condition: G/None, with some minor pencil notes and corrections made to the text, ex-library markings (including a discard stamp to front pastedown and circulation card sleeve to rear endpaper), a piece of tape along the edge of the last page, a few tears to earlier pages, old black tape residue to joints and bottom edge, fraying to spine ends, partial split to cloth at rear joint, and scuffing, rubbing, and wear to boards and corners.
