‘The Hobbit’, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, how it almost came to be

In the late 1960s Maurice Sendak, of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ fame was asked to illustrate a 30th Anniversary Edition of ‘The Hobbit”. He drew two sample illustrations which were sent to Tolkien for approval, but, unfortunately, the publisher mistakenly labeled the Elves in one illustration as Hobbits, and as he thought that this indicated that Sendak had never even read the book, this upset Tolkien to the point that he refused permission for the Sendak illustrated edition. You can read the full story here.