J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 book introducing Middle-earth’s hobbits was The Hobbit. Its full title is The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, and it follows Bilbo Baggins as he leaves his comfortable home for an expedition involving dwarves, the wizard Gandalf, and the dragon Smaug.
Tolkien originally wrote the story for his children, but Allen & Unwin published it in 1937 after an influential reader’s recommendation. The book became a major success and led Tolkien’s publisher to request a sequel. That sequel grew into The Lord of the Rings, a much longer and more formally epic work.
The Hobbit is sometimes treated as though it were simply the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, but it was written and published separately. Its tone is generally lighter and more directly aimed at younger readers, although later editions adjusted some details to better connect it with the darker history of the One Ring.