Which publishing house first released J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?

George Allen & Unwin first released J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit in 1937.

The London publishing house became closely linked with Tolkien’s major fiction. Stanley Unwin’s son Rayner read the manuscript and gave it a favorable report, helping persuade the company to publish it. The book’s commercial and critical success then encouraged Tolkien to develop a much larger follow-up story.

George Allen & Unwin also published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes from 1954 to 1955. The firm later became part of larger publishing organizations, but its role in launching Tolkien’s fiction is historically distinctive. The Hobbit is sometimes associated with Houghton Mifflin because that American company published an early United States edition, but the original British publisher was George Allen & Unwin.