The Hobbit First Edition Auctioned for $57,000 and the Whimsical Saga Behind It

An unassuming, dusty and faded green cloth-bound book was hiding in plain sight on a bookshelf. It was called The Hobbit. Not J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, right? Well, yes it was – and that faded book happens to be one of the rarest first editions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. This isn’t fiction, folks. It’s exactly what happened to Caitlin Riley, a books specialist who casually unearthed this literary treasure while appraising the contents of a home in Bristol, England.

Spoiler alert: this “run-of-the-mill” find ended up selling for a jaw-dropping £43,000 – or that is about $57,000!

 

A Hobbit’s Journey to the Auction Block

Little did Tolkien know in 1937, as he meticulously crafted a tale of hobbits, dwarves, and dragons, that the book’s first print run of 1,500 copies would become sacred artifacts among collectors. Out of the millions of copies of The Hobbit sold since, fewer than a few hundred of these first editions remain, many scrawled with children’s doodles or yellowing with age.

Not this copy, though. This baby was in near-pristine condition, lovingly preserved by its owners – not out of devotion, apparently, but sheer indifference, as it seems no one even read it. A rare win for book collectors!

The late owner of this copy wasn’t Tolkien himself (sadly), though there’s speculation they had connections to the author via academic circles. Turns out, the book lived within the library of one Hubert Priestley, a botanist tied to the University of Bristol, where Tolkien’s peer C.S. Lewis also corresponded. Whether this little piece of Middle-earth simply collected dust or sat silently in reverence on the shelf, its survival story is worth a Smaug-worthy pile of gems.

 

Why Do First Editions of The Hobbit Hold Such Value?

Here’s the kicker: the initial copies featured black-and-white illustrations Tolkien himself etched out to save printing costs. By the second print run (rushed due to the book’s runaway success), illustrations were redone in glorious color. Finding an unblemished first edition today feels akin to Frodo finding the One Ring under his couch cushions.

The rarity of such copies drives their high value. While this Bristol auction pulled a respectable $57K, some Tolkien first editions with extras like dust jackets or handwritten notes in Tolkien’s Elvish script fetched loftier sums. Sotheby’s sold one in 2015 for the princely (see what we did there?) sum of $182,000.

 

The Sale and Its Significance

This recent sale at $57K may not have broken any records, but it’s still a tidy sum. The book’s discovery lit up auction houses and collectors alike. Caitlin Riley, who initially identified the book with a racing pulse, called it a “once-in-a-lifetime discovery.” Safe to say, stumbling on literary gold during your 9 to 5 isn’t exactly a dull day.

Riley called it similar to finding a “diamond in amongst everything else.”

We couldn’t believe our eyes. The majority of examples you do see come to the market are a bit tattered and tired looking.. With this one, nobody’s opened it, nobody’s touched it, so it was just so exciting.

The Hobbit or also entitled There and Back Again, is a children/young adult fantasy novel and it’s one of the best-selling books of all time. It boasts more than a whopping 100 million copies sold.

The fantasy story is set in fictional Middle-earth and it follows the (mis)adventures of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins on his journey to find a treasure.

Why Should You Care?

Maybe you’re not poised to drop tens of thousands on a rare Tolkien relic, but The Hobbit’s legacy reinforces just how culturally impactful literary masterpieces can be. Its ongoing allure proves Middle-earth is as alive today as it was in 1937. Plus, who doesn’t love an underdog story where the “forgotten book on a dusty shelf” triumphs in epic fashion?