J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937.
The children’s fantasy novel was released by George Allen & Unwin on 21 September 1937. It follows Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit drawn into a quest with Thorin Oakenshield and a company of dwarves to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug.
The book began as a story Tolkien told and developed for his children, but it also drew on his scholarly interests in mythology, language, and medieval literature. Its success led his publisher to request a sequel, which eventually became The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is therefore earlier than Tolkien’s major Middle-earth trilogy, not a later companion volume.