" The Hobbit was first published in Septemper 1937. Its 1951 second edition (fifth impression) contains a significantly revised portion of Chapter V, Riddle in the Dark, which was done in order to bring the storyline of The Hobbit more in line with its sequal, The Lord of the Rings, then in progress. Tolkien made some further revisions to the American edition published by Ballantine Books in February 1966, and to the British edition published by George Allen & Unwin in paperback later that same year.
This newely reset edition is based on the third edition of 1966, but also contains a number of further corrections of misprints and errors. It represents as closely as possible Tolkien's final intended form. Readers interested in details of the changes made at various times to the text of The Hobbit are referred to Appendix A, Textual and Revisional Notes, of The Annotated Hobbit (1988), and J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography by Wayne G. Hammond, with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson (1993)
Douglas A. Anderson
7th December 1994 "
They managed to get that info across without denials of it ever happening, or without refering to people that wish to find and enjoy the uneditted version as being " delightly deranged" or how ever Mr. Rick put it.