51 CONTENT MARKETING HACKS CHAPTER 3 6 Content Marketing Strategies Learned from The Hobbit December 8, 2012 How a Little-known English Professor Became a Literary Legend As unbelievable as it sounds, it all started with a blank piece of paper, a moment of sudden inspiration, and one sentence jotted down onto that paper. It all happened one day in the early 1930s. At this point in time, a little-known Oxford professor was in the middle of creating School Certificate papers when he came across the blank piece of paper and was hit with inspiration. Little did he know that that one sentence would change his life, and the literary world, forever. What was the sentence? “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” That simple sentence sparked the idea for a story. A story that would be completed in late 1932. The finished manuscript was passed on to a few friends, one of them being another unknown young man at the time, C.S. Lewis. The manuscript kept changing hands until it finally ended up in the hands of one of the professor’s students whose name was Elaine Griffiths. By this point in time it was 1936, and Elaine Griffiths was visited by Susan Dagnall, who was a staff member of a publishing house called George Allen & Unwin. It’s reported that Elaine either lent Susan the manuscript or suggested she borrow it from the professor. However it happened, Susan ended up reading the manuscript and was very impressed by the story that had developed. She was so impressed with it that she showed the book to British publisher, Stanley Unwin. He decided to get a second ©2015 Scott Aughtmon #51contentmarketinghacks 20