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I
never
expected
a
money
success.
In
fact,
I
never
even
thought
of
commercial
publication
when
I
wrote
The
Hobbit
back
in
the
Thirties.
It
all
began
when
I
was
reading
exam
papers
to
earn
a
bit
of
extra
money.
That
was
agony.
One
of
the
tragedies
of
the
underpaid
professor
is
that
he
has
to
do
menial
jobs.
He
is
expected
to
maintain
a
certain
position
and
to
send
his
children
to
good
schools.
Well,
one
day
I
came
to
a
blank
page
in
an
exam
book
and
I
scribbled
on
it.
'In
a
hole
in
the
ground
there
lived
a
hobbit.'
I
knew
no
more
about
the
creatures
than
that,
and
it
was
years
before
his
story
grew.
I
don't
know
where
the
word
came
from.
You
can't
catch
your
mind
out.
It
might
have
been
associated
with
Sinclair
Lewis's
Babbitt.
Certainly
not
rabbit,
as
some
people
think.
Babbitt
has
the
same
bourgeois
smugness
that
hobbits
do.
His
world
is
the
same
limited
place.
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