Tuesday, September 1, 2009

10 Books A Day: #133















All books are by J. R. R. Tolkien.


The Hobbit...Illustrations From The Film By Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass...Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

The Hobbit...Fifty-Eighth Printing, March 1976...Ballantine Books

The Hobbit...Seventy-Seventh Printing, April 1981...Ballantine Books

The Hobbit...Twenty-Eighth Printing...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Hobbit...2007...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Hobbit...Green Slipcased...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Hobbit...Gold Slipcased 50th Anniversary...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Hobbit...1984, Illustrated By Michael Hague...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Hobbit...Illustrated By Alan Lee...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Annotated Hobbit...Annotated By Douglas A. Anderson...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Annotated Hobbit, Revised And Expanded Edition...Annotated By Douglas A. Anderson...Houghton Mifflin Company


Today I start cataloging my Tolkien and Tolkien-related books, and I begin with all my copies of The Hobbit. I cannot begin to say enough about this book and its significance to me: I think just the sheer number of copies speaks clearly on that score. Each edition has its own special points and story of how and why I got it, from the 1977 Rankin-Bass illustrated edition that inaugurated my entrance into the Science Fiction Book Club to the 2007 edition that is part of The History of The Hobbit series. I have at least two more copies not listed here. There is a duplicate of the 1981 77th Printing and a copy of the old "Emus and Bulb Tree" cover that is inexplicably not here in the collection. One of my favorite copies is the annotated edition, which includes illustrations from translated editions all over the world.


Book Count: 1586.

1 comment:

Babel said...

Notice how few of the covers actually focus on the hobbit himself, Bilbo. I think a nice characteristic portrait of Bilbo would be great. Of course that would mean another edition of the book that would need to be purchased, but hey, who's complaining?