09/21/11: The Hobbit turns 74 today!
Posted by Demosthemes at TheOneRing.net:
Today marks the 74th anniversary of the publication of the Hobbit by George Allen & Unwin. It was on 21 September, 1937 that the first copies of this now-famous fantasy tale rolled off the presses and into the shops.And without The Hobbit there would never have been The Lord of the Rings. To read the entire post, click here: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/09/21/48322-the-hobbit-turns-74-t oday/.
Allen & Unwin printed “only” 1,500 copies in the first impression of the first edition. It proved an immediate hit. By December, that first run had entirely sold out.
Since then, it’s estimated that the tale of Bilbo’s heroic quest defeat the dragon Smaug and reclaim the birthright of Thorin has sold somewhere between 35 million and 100 million copies. It’s also been translated into more than 40 different languages.
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