Signed first edition Hobbit goes on the block
Last Updated: Friday, February 8, 2008 | 11:41 AM ET
CBC News
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A first edition copy of The Hobbit signed by author J.R.R. Tolkien is being put up for auction.
The book features several black and white images and was signed by Tolkien and dedicated to his friend Elaine Griffiths. It is expected to fetch about £30,000 ($58,166 Cdn).
Just 1,500 copies of the cult classic were printed when it was first published in 1937. It has gone on to sell more than 100 million copies in more than 40 languages.
Bonhams auction house in London, England, announced Friday the signed copy would be put on the block along with the first foreign language edition, in Swedish and published in 1947.
The story, written by Tolkien for his children, follows hobbit Bilbo Baggins in a fantasy world as he travels with 13 dwarves and the wizard Gandalf in search of a treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug.
The Hobbit is a precursor to The Lord of the Rings, a much longer work completed 17 years later. It was made into an Oscar-winning trilogy of films directed by Peter Jackson, who is reputed to be at work on a film adaptation of The Hobbit.
Also be up for sale at the auction will be the last known photograph of the author, thought to have been taken by his grandson Michael in 1973.
The photo shows Tolkien in the Oxford Botanical Gardens leaning against his favourite tree, a black pine. The picture was a present from Tolkien's daughter Priscilla to Griffiths and is inscribed on the back: "For Elaine with love from Priscilla."
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