Today, September 21, 2012, The Hobbit turns 75 years old. Or rather it is the 75th Anniversary of its publication.

Happy Anniversary, The Hobbit!

Happy anniversary, The Hobbit! What would we have done without you? Thank you, J.R.R. Tolkien, for writing such an amazing tale and letting us experience the adventure, too. I've loved every minute of it.

*dances a jig atop a table, in the style of Merry and Pippin *

The Hobbit is a wonderful and imaginative book. I am happy to have read it twice, and am looking forward to a more studious third reading and the detailed discussion that will follow! Happy 75th!

I am so excited to (finally) read the book all the way through! And, of course, to see the movie in December!
Hoping that the reading group will help me get through the book this time!

I don't usually participate in reading groups, but it has been awhile since I read the Hobbit. Might be time to hunt down a copy. I feel like it's a bit misleading to say that I've read the book "several time" when in fact I think I've read it exactly twice.

I had a question about the book, actually---what's the difference between the authorized or revised version and the regular one? Or, I guess, why is there a revised version? I had never paid that much attention before, but I picked up a copy at a library booksale and noticed that it said it was the authorized version, so I was curious what that meant.

The revised version has Bilbo tell a slightly different story about how he got the Ring than if one was reading the original first edition; it was changed after the Ring took on a more sinister aspect in Lord of the Rings.

As to authorized, I think back in the day there were pirate printings in America...

Thank you, Mel! I don't suppose you have any idea how different the two stories are?
Pirate printings? That's kind of horrible, but actually not all that surprising.

I think I might have read this comparison once upon a time. Or something similar, anyway.

Thanks very much, Mel. How interesting!

Great link, Mel!
A useful resource for study

In fact, the "account that Bilbo told the dwarves" of the events is what appeared in the first edition of The Hobbit in 1937. When the character of Gollum was revised (and his history and motivations more extensively explored) for The Lord of the Rings, Chapter Five of The Hobbit was subsequently changed by Tolkien in later editions to reflect the version described in LotR.

I read somewhere that Tolkien sent in a changed version of Chapter Five to his publishers as a suggestion or possibly a first draft - and that they just printed it without further ado

Touching back to this for a moment:

As to authorized, I think back in the day there were pirate printings in America...

There is the following on the back of my copy:

This paperback edition, and no other, has been published with my consent and co-operation. Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it, and no other.

J. R. R. Tolkien

So, yes, I guess that answers for sure the issue of pirate printings.

There definitely was a pirate printing of LotR - and the sorting out of that issue made Tolkien better known, I think - so it's likely that there might be some of his other book as well.

I read the book and I watched the 2012 movie It's great, I thought the visual effects to the film were the best I've seen since the Narnia movies.