On 21 September 1937 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, was published by George Allen & Unwin (UK).

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, not yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

Tolkien’s correspondence and publisher’s records show that he was involved in the design and illustration of the entire book. All elements were the subject of considerable correspondence and fussing over by Tolkien. Rayner Unwin, in his publishing memoir, comments:

“In 1937 alone Tolkien wrote 26 letters to George Allen & Unwin… detailed, fluent, often pungent, but infinitely polite and exasperatingly precise… I doubt any author today, however famous, would get such scrupulous attention.”

The Hobbit is one of the best selling books of all time:  estimated global sales of The Hobbit run between 35 and 100 million copies since 1937.