What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published book after The Hobbit?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published book after The Hobbit was The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in July 1954, followed by The Two Towers later that year and The Return of the King in 1955. Tolkien wrote the work as a sequel to The Hobbit, but it grew into a much longer and more serious epic.

The story follows the attempt to destroy the One Ring, a powerful object made by Sauron. Its central characters include Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Aragorn and Gandalf. Although commonly called a trilogy, Tolkien regarded it as one novel that was divided into volumes for publishing reasons.

The Silmarillion was published only after Tolkien’s death, in 1977, under the editorial work of his son Christopher Tolkien. It is therefore not the book that followed The Hobbit in publication, even though much of its mythology predates the events of both novels.