[3] The book has numerous illustrations, including both materials that Tolkien intended to use to support the text (maps, Bilbo's contract written in Tengwar and supposedly preserved after being left by Thorin on the mantelpiece in Bag End, paintings), and images of Tolkien's manuscripts and letters.

Santoski had connections to the Marquette University collection of Tolkien material, which is where the original manuscripts reside.

[3] Jason Fisher, reviewing the book for Mythlore, said it was worth the very long wait (from 1991), describing the account as "riveting".

The book had three purposes: to present the earliest manuscript version; to show that it was, pace Christopher Tolkien, connected to the tradition of The Silmarillion; and to examine both Tolkien's revision of 1947 giving the familiar text, and his abandoned 1960 rewrite, which would have refashioned the whole book "to bring it into greater harmony with the mood, language, and geography of The Lord of the Rings."

Fisher describes the books' layout as "meticulously systematic" and comparable to Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-earth.

He finds the book rich in "wonderful surprises", among them that Thorin Oakenshield would have been Gandalf the Dwarf, while the Wizard of that name would have been called Bladorthin; and Tolkien considered having Bilbo Baggins the hobbit navigate Mirkwood using a ball of rolled-up spider silk "like Theseus in the Minotaur's labyrinth".

He enjoyed, too, the appendices with previously unpublished illustrations, including a facsimile of the Dwarves' letter which Bilbo found under the clock on his mantelpiece.

For Fisher, however, the most interesting addition was the unfinished 1960 rewrite of the first three chapters, adding detail of passing through Bree, for example, but losing much of the humour.