On the 21st of September 1937 the first copies of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, appeared on the shelves of bookstores in England. The maps and illustrations were drawn by the author, one JRR Tolkien, and by Christmas 1937 the book had sold out of its first printing.
Tolkien began writing The Hobbit in 1928 after writing down “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” whilst grading exam papers. The rest is history. The success of The Hobbit led to fans demanding to know more about the hobbit and between 1954 and 1955 Tolkien released the trilogy of books that was to become one of the best-known and most-bought pieces of literature in history. The Lord of the Rings was a far more-adult themed story and proved even more popular; but without The Hobbit a book that would never have been.
So raise a glass to The Hobbit on it’s eleventy-seventh (!?!?!?) - anybody who knows the hobbit equivalent of seventy one please let me know - birthday, without it the fantasy genre would be a poorer place.
The Hobbit book review
The Lord of the Rings book review
JRR Tolkien biography