The story line was inspired by Tolkien's own vehicular mishaps with his first automobile. The bears were based on toy bears owned by Tolkien's sons. Tolkien was both author and illustrator of the book. His narrative binds the story and illustrations tightly together, as the text often comments directly on the pictures. Despite not being published during Tolkien's lifetime, he submitted the book to his publishers as a balm to readers who were hungry for more from Tolkien after the success of The Hobbit. The lavish ink and colored pencil illustrations would have made production costs prohibitively expensive so Tolkien agreed to redraw the pictures in a simpler style, although that never came to happen.