It's All About Hobbits!

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
Greg and Tim Hildebrandt made their careers painting Tolkien’s world.
   [source]

FOUR FUN FACTS For "Hobbit Day" and "Tolkien Week", in honor of the author...

1) Publication Date: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was published in England on September 21, 1937.  That first edition sold out by December of that year because of such glowing reviews!

2) Did you know Tolkien could draw?
...when J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, he was already an accomplished amateur artist, and drew illustrations for his book while it was still in manuscript. See all his illustrations here.

How Tolkien envisioned the Shire [source]

3) The cover that Tolkien hated...
The 1942 edition of The Hobbit for Foyles book club, directed at British children. 

Tolkien is said to have remarked, "Surely the paper wasted on that hideous dust-cover could have been better used." (Believe it or not, that's meant to be Bilbo Baggins in the suit.) 
[source, Tolkien Library - here]

[source] 

4)  Happy Hobbit Day!!  September 22 marks Bilbo and Frodo's mutual birthday, the date of the "Long Awaited Party", and was designated by the American Tolkien Society in 1978 as "Hobbit Day". 

To celebrate, check out "A Visual History of Bilbo Baggins" from Buzzfeed.  And don't forget to have a Second Breakfast!