Editing J. R. R. Tolkien (section)

==== ''The Hobbit'' ====
{{Main|The Hobbit}}

Tolkien never expected his stories to become popular, but by sheer accident a book called ''[[The Hobbit]]'', which he had written some years before for his own children, came in 1936 to the attention of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the London publishing firm [[George Allen & Unwin]], who persuaded Tolkien to submit it for publication.<ref name="NYTimes obit" /> When it was published a year later, the book attracted adult readers as well as children, and it became popular enough for the publishers to ask Tolkien to produce a sequel.<ref>{{ME-ref|DB|pp=8–23}}</ref>