J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy novel featuring Bilbo Baggins is The Hobbit.
The book follows Bilbo, a comfort-loving hobbit recruited by the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves to help reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. Its full title is The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, referring to Bilbo’s journey and return to the Shire.
Tolkien originally wrote the story for his children, and it was published by George Allen & Unwin in September 1937. The success of The Hobbit led the publisher to request a sequel, which eventually became The Lord of the Rings. Readers sometimes confuse The Hobbit with The Silmarillion, but that later book is a collection of mythology and history edited and published after Tolkien’s death.