The Hobbit was published in 1937 as Tolkien’s first major Middle-earth book.
George Allen & Unwin published The Hobbit on 21 September 1937. The book follows Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving hobbit drawn into a quest involving Thorin Oakenshield, the Company of Dwarves, and the dragon Smaug.
Although Tolkien later connected The Hobbit more closely to the mythology of The Lord of the Rings, it began as a children’s adventure story. Its success led the publisher to request a sequel, which eventually became the much larger Lord of the Rings.
Readers sometimes assume The Silmarillion came first because its stories reach far deeper into Tolkien’s invented history. However, The Silmarillion was assembled and published posthumously in 1977, edited by Christopher Tolkien.