When was " A New hobbit " started ?
Tolkien wrote to W. H. Auden that " The Marvellous Land of Snergs " " was probably an unconscious source - book for the Hobbits " and he told an interviewer that the word " hobbit " " might have been associated with Sinclair Lewis 's Babbitt " ( like hobbits , George Babbitt enjoys the comforts of his home ) .