Who wrote J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit, first published in 1937?

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, first published in 1937.

The book began as a children’s fantasy story about Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit recruited by the wizard Gandalf to join a company of dwarves. Their quest was to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

The Hobbit was Tolkien’s first published novel set in Middle-earth. It introduced characters and places that later became central to The Lord of the Rings, although Tolkien revised some details to connect the stories more closely. The first edition was illustrated by Tolkien himself and was published in London by George Allen & Unwin.

A common mix-up is confusing the novel’s publication date with the later film trilogy, which began in 2012. Tolkien also wrote The Lord of the Rings, but that much longer work was published in three volumes between 1954 and 1955.