Biography
The father of high fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien is best known for his epic The Lord Of The Rings series, which helped shape the modern fantasy genre.
Born in 1892 in the Republic of South Africa, John Ronald Reuel came to England to visit family with his mother and younger brother when he was three years old. His father died before he could join them, and the family never returned, instead settling in Birmingham.
Ronald was homeschooled and showed an early interest in languages, inventing many new dialects. His mother died when he was twelve, and he and his brother went to live with a close family friend, before he attended Exeter College, Oxford, to study language and literature. Graduating in 1915, he joined the Army and fought at the Somme. He was invalided back home in 1916.
In the 1920s, he worked at the Oxford English Dictionary, then as a professor at Pembroke College. During this time, he wrote The Hobbit to entertain his children and the first two volumes in The Lord Of The Rings series.
In 1936, a friend persuaded Ronald to submit The Hobbit for publication; it was so popular the publishers asked him to write a sequel. It took him nearly ten years to edit his earlier work, and in 1954, The Lord Of The Rings was published and has remained in print ever since.
Blending philosophy, mythology and religion, J.R.R. Tolkien helped to define the high fantasy genre, creating epic quest tales of friendship, fellowship and fate that you can’t help but be drawn into.
