It's no secret that people go crazy for anything J.R.R. Tolkien has touched. In case you need further proof of that, a first edition of The Hobbit inscribed by the author just shattered sales records at auction.
A first edition of Tolkien's first novel inscribed by the author sold for £137,000 at auction, which is about $209,000, The Guardian reports. Tolkien had given the copy to one of his former students at Leeds University, Katherine Kilbride, in 1937.
Tolkien's inscription in the book is a message written in Old English, which The History of The Hobbit author John D. Rateliff has identified as coming from Tolkien's The Lost Road, the author's never-completed time-travel story.
This sales record was previously set in 2008 by a first-edition copy of The Hobbit that sold for £50,000, or about $76,272.
Tolkien had inscribed only a "handful" of copies of The Hobbit, one of which was given to The Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis, according to Sotheby's as reported by The Guardian. Kilbride, who passed away in 1966, was "an invalid all her life," but she found joy in Tolkien's letters and cards, her nephew told The Guardian. Books were also given to her as they were published.
Check out The Guardian for photos of the book and the inscription.
Photo: Tim Sackton | Flickr
