Early American Editions of The Hobbit - The Second Edition - Basics

Basics

Tolkien began work on The Lord of the Rings in the years after The Hobbit's publication. As the story evolved, Tolkien realized he needed to change how Bilbo and Gollum interacted in The Hobbit to suit the plot of The Lord of the Rings. Allen & Unwin prepared a new edition of The Hobbit for release in 1951, and Houghton Mifflin followed suit. These American impressions from the 5th through the 14th were bound from sheets printed in Great Britain, corresponding to the same George Allen & Unwin Ltd printings of the second edition. Unlike the AU printings, the American copies do not state the printing until the 18th in the second edition, making them very difficult to identify in isolation. The only exceptions are the 11th, 12th, and one of the two variants of the 5th impression, each of which states the full printing history. The following list of "points" was developed by Strebe by comparing unknown American printings to known British printings. Steve Frisby untangled the 9th printing, which differs from its Allen & Unwin counterpart on page 315. (This divergence likely resulted from the cancel title pages AU was obliged to supply when they converted 9th printing sheets intended for British domestic use into Houghton Mifflin sets.) Information regarding the print run sizes of the Second American Edition of the Hobbit is reported at TolkienBooks.net and is derived from Allen & Unwin records.

The American second editions from the 5th through 14th printings measure 12.7 x 19.0 cm, contain 315 numbered pages, and have end-paper maps printed in black, white, and red. The frontispiece is printed in color, but the remaining color plates of the first edition have been eliminated. With the exception of the 5th printing, the cover design is similar to the American first edition, only smaller, differently colored, and lacking the bowing hobbit emblem on the front board. Both variants of the 5th printing, on the other hand, are bound identically to the British printings, with the only distinction being the notation "Houghton Mifflin Company" at the base of the book's spine.

It would be natural to surmise that Houghton Mifflin put out a 15th impression corresponding to the Allen & Unwin 15th, which is the final British printing of the second edition. But in fact Houghton Mifflin abandoned the practice of importing sheets from Allen & Unwin after the 14th impression. This decision coincides with the rapid rise in Tolkien's popularity in the United States in the mid 1960s. With larger runs, printing locally while paying AU an "offset fee" was cheaper than importing. Interestingly, the decision also coincides with a change of printer on the British side: through the 14th printing (excepting only the 12th printing, contracted out to Waterlow & Sons), Unwin Brothers Limited printed the sheets. Starting with the British 15th impression, C. Tingling and Co. Ltd., took over the printing, though the publisher remained George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Perhaps the change of printer is relevant to Houghton Mifflin's decision to print their own sheets. In any event the new format accounts for the 15th through 23rd printings and is described below in Later printings of second edition.