The Hobbit was released September 21, 1937.
The Hobbit . It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim , being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction . The Hobbit (1977 film) . The film is an adaptation of the 1937 book of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien and was first broadcast on NBC in the United States on Sunday , November 27 , 1977 .