Who was the original publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?

George Allen & Unwin was the original publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

The London publishing house issued The Hobbit in 1937 after Tolkien submitted the manuscript and it received an enthusiastic report from an outside reader. The book quickly became successful, and the firm remained closely associated with Tolkien’s major Middle-earth publications.

George Allen & Unwin also published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. The company’s chairman, Stanley Unwin, supported Tolkien even when the author’s revisions, appendices, maps, and invented languages made production complicated.

The name can be confused with later publishers of Tolkien’s books, including Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in later decades. George Allen & Unwin is the answer for the original British publication of The Hobbit, not for every later edition or translation.