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, A Descriptive Bibliography J. R. R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Bibliography J.R.R. Tolkien, A Descriptive Biography is a work by Douglas A. Anderson and Wayne G. Hammond that is a complete bibliography of the publications of J. R. R. Tolkien. It has a foreword by Rayner Unwin. The book subdivides the works of Tolkien into the following sections: The book has been in two editions, a first printing published in 1993 by St. Paul's Bibliographies, and a second printing in 2002 by Oak Knoll Press. A review for the Bibliographical Society of America by Barbara A. Brannon calls it "an essential guide" for scholarship.