One Book to Rule Them All: The Hobbit First Edition Breaks Auction Record

Somewhere out there, a fellow Tolkien fan is now holding my dream in their hands - and I am equal parts thrilled for them and irrationally bitter that it isn't me.

A first edition of The Hobbit - we're talking one of the original 1,500 printed in 1937 - just sold for a jaw-dropping £43,000 at auction. And before you ask, no, it wasn't hidden away in a dark cellar or locked in some millionaire's glass case. It was sitting, naked and dustcover-free, on a random bookcase in Bristol, waiting for someone with an ounce of good fortune (and apparently the luck of a Took) to pluck it from obscurity.

The book specialist called it "astonishingly rare" - which feels like an understatement when you consider how many first editions were mauled by sticky-fingered children, doodled on with crayons, or simply read until the spine gave up. This one? Absolutely pristine. Apparently unread. Which, as a book hoarder, I find both awe-inspiring and mildly offensive.

What makes it even more magical is the provenance. The book came from the family of Hubert Priestley, a botanist in the 1930s who was the brother of an Antarctic explorer (because apparently everyone back then had an epic title). Priestley had strong Oxford connections and likely knew Tolkien personally. So yes, there's a real chance this book has been in the same room as both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I don't know about you, but if I owned that copy, I'd probably carry it around in a little baby sling and introduce it to strangers as "my precious."

Oh, and did I mention? This particular copy includes Tolkien's own drawings. As if the auction needed to twist the dagger deeper into my envious heart.

It's the kind of find that makes you want to immediately rip through your attic, your parents' attic, and maybe even "help" a few elderly relatives clean out their bookshelves, just in case there's a dusty gem hiding there. Because clearly, somewhere out there, another one of these could be waiting.

Until then, I'll be here, petting my perfectly nice (but not £43,000 nice) copy of The Hobbit and telling myself that owning the story is what matters… not the first edition.

Right?

Right??