Which Tolkien book was first published in 1937?

The Tolkien book first published in 1937 was The Hobbit. It appeared in London on 21 September 1937, issued by George Allen & Unwin.

The book began as a children’s fantasy about Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving hobbit whose life changes when Gandalf and a group of dwarves arrive at his home. The expedition aims to reclaim treasure from the dragon Smaug in the Lonely Mountain. Although the plot is accessible, Tolkien included poems, invented genealogies, ancient rivalries, and linguistic details that connect the adventure to a much larger imagined history.

The Hobbit’s commercial and critical success encouraged the publisher to seek another book from Tolkien. The requested sequel eventually became The Lord of the Rings, which was written on a larger scale and published in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. The earlier book therefore stands both as a complete adventure and as the starting point for Tolkien’s best-known fictional world.