Who was J.R.R. Tolkien?
J.R.R. Tolkien was an English writer and academic who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is often called the father of modern fantasy literature.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892 in Bloemfontein, in present-day South Africa, and moved to England as a child. He grew up around Birmingham.
He fought in World War I at the Battle of the Somme. His experiences influenced his writing about war and loss.
Middle-earth
Tolkien became a professor of English language at the University of Oxford. He was an expert in Old English and created entire languages for his fictional world, Middle-earth.
The Hobbit was published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955. The books have sold many millions of copies.
Tolkien was a member of the Inklings, a group of Oxford writers that included C.S. Lewis. They met at the Eagle and Child pub.
He died in 1973. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson, brought his stories to a new generation.