Originally posted by: Tiptup

Hmm, yeah, though I do believe the original form of the book is still available if you look for it. I'm not sure about this though.

As others (i.e. me) have said in other threads addressing this topic, the first edition text of The Hobbit is available in The Annotated Hobbit. A great deal of Tolkien's unpublished and published-yet-hard-to-find work has been (re-)published by his literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, who recognizes the great value in his father's words.

Since all the Middle-earth books are, in their fictional universe, ancient documents translated by Professor Tolkien, there is room for multiple editions to comfortably co-exist. Just as there are multiple translations and multiple texts of other ancient texts, like the Bible, there exists multiple texts and translations of the Red Book of Westmarch and Bilbo's collection of Elven lore. In this fictional universe, there can even be action-adventure movies based on the Red Book, and no one complains about "canon" or authorial intent because historical fiction frequently deviates from historical records, which themselves frequently deviate from historical truth.