J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion first appeared in 1977, after his death.
Tolkien died on 2 September 1973, leaving behind decades of notes, drafts, revisions, and alternative versions of his mythology. His son Christopher Tolkien edited this material and prepared The Silmarillion for publication. The book was released in 1977 by George Allen & Unwin.
The publication date can be confused with Tolkien’s death in 1973 or with the publication dates of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Unlike those books, The Silmarillion was assembled posthumously from Tolkien’s papers. It presents stories reaching from the creation of Arda through major events of the First Age and is fundamental to understanding the mythology behind later Middle-earth narratives.