It’s hard to imagine our world without The Lord of the Rings, but perhaps it's a bit easier to imagine what might have happened had Tolkien not expanded his fictional borders beyond The Hobbit. Seventeen years passed between the initial publication of The Hobbit, and the first printing of The Fellowship of the Ring, during which time Tolkien ended up heavily revising the first book, to make it match up with the second book. Tolkien was riskily transforming a hazy charming fantasy land into something much more complex and enduring. None of it should have worked, but 70 years ago, on October 21, 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring hit bookstores in the U.S. and nothing was the same ever again.
Mild spoilers ahead.
