Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien legendarium which includes "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Silmarillion". Tolkien's "The Hobbit", a children's book, was first published in 1937, and it proved popular. However, "The Lord of the Rings", first published in 1954 through 1955, would give rise to the fandom as a cultural phenomenon. Bootleg paperbacks published by Ace Books eventually found their way into colleges in the US in the 1960s. In response, a revised, authorized edition was published by Ballantine Books. The "hippie" following latched onto the book, giving its own spin to the work's interpretation, such as the Dark Lord Sauron
J. R. R. Tolkien 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. 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. The request for a sequel prompted Tolkien to begin what would become his most famous work: the epic novel "The Lord of the Rings" (originally published in three volumes 1954–1955). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative