Who published the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit in 1937?

George Allen & Unwin published the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit in 1937.

The London publishing house issued the book on 21 September 1937. Stanley Unwin, the company’s chairman, had his ten-year-old son Rayner read the manuscript and provide a favorable report, helping the firm decide to publish it. Tolkien supplied illustrations and maps for the original edition.

The book quickly became a commercial and critical success. Its popularity led George Allen & Unwin to request a sequel, although Tolkien’s developing mythology eventually made that sequel much longer and more complex than another children’s adventure.

The company later published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. George Allen & Unwin therefore played a decisive role in bringing Tolkien’s best-known Middle-earth books to their first British readership. The name is sometimes confused with later American publishers, which issued separate editions and distribution arrangements.