Happy 70th birthday, Bilbo Baggins!
No, you geek, I’m not talking about Bilbo’s birthday of September 22, 2890 of the Third Age, being born to Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took. That’s tomorrow.
But seventy years ago today, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London published the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit in September 1937, illustrated with many black-and-white drawings by Tolkien himself. The original printing numbered a mere 1,500 copies and sold out by December due to smash reviews. Since then, it’s been printed in over 50 editions in English alone, and multiple media adaptions, including a graphic novel by David Wenzel, Chuck Dixon, and Sean Deming.