On September 21, 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel The Hobbit was published for the first time. 

 1,500 copies were printed, complete with black and white illustrations by Tolkien.   

The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
From Royal Mail’s 1998 Famous Children’s Fantasy Novels set
Designed by Peter Malone

In fact, Tolkien was reported to be extremely involved in the design and illustration of the books, so much so that his editors joked about it. One of his publishers, Rayner Unwin, said: “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.”

But Tolkein had a very specific idea for how the story should look and went so far as to include a set of illustrations he had drawn. Those illustrations have never been published before, but The Guardian has a sneak peek at them. The Hobbit You Grew Up With Isn’t Quite the Same As the Original, Published 75 Years Ago Today

Historic Times has an interesting essay on Tolkien and the Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien And The Creation Of The Hobbit: The Birth Of Modern Fantasy. Worth the time to read. 

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