Tolkien's 'Hobbit' celebrates 75th anniversary

No need to wait for Peter Jackson and his movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to arrive on Dec. 14: Middle-earth mania has already hit bookstores. Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's immortal tale about the great adventure of furry-footed Bilbo Baggins.

Written by Tolkien, a British professor, for his four children and published in 1937 with a 1,500-copy first printing, it's the story of how a stay-at-home hobbit very fond of hearth and home ends up venturing forth with 13 dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf to retrieve treasure stolen by a savage dragon. The prelude to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit has been translated in to more than 50 languages and has sold 100 million copies worldwide.