Skip to Main Content

J.R.R. Tolkien: About

Watch

Who was J.R.R. Tolkien?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, WWI veteran (a First Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army), philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the high fantasy classic works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings .

Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English language and literature from 1945 to 1959. He was a close friend of C.S. Lewis.

Christopher Tolkien published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion . These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the word "legendarium" to the larger part of these writings.

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or more precisely, high fantasy. Tolkien's writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field.

In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009.  
Continue reading from Goodreads

From our Collection

Link to Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth by Mcilwaine in the catalog
Link to The Hobbit or There and Back Again by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Beren and Lúthien by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to A Tolkien Bestiary by Day in  the catalog
Link to The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien by Garth in the catalog
Link to Tolkien by Day in the catalog
Link to Two Towers by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Fall of Gondolin by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to The Story of Kullervo by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Middle-Earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend by Donato Giancola in Hoopla
Link to The Return of the King by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Children of Húrin by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to The Book of Lost Tales by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to The Fantasy Makers (film) in hoopla
Link to Bilbo's Last Song by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Silmarillion by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Tales from the Perilous Realm by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to The Shaping of Middle-Earth by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to Tolkien & Lewis: Myth, Imagination & the Quest for Meaning (film) in Hoopla
Link to Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to The Sweet and the Bitter by Amy Amendt-Raduege in Freading
Link to The Lost Road and Other Writings by Tolkien in the catalog
Link to The Real Middle Earth (film) in Hoopla
Link to The J.R.R. Tolkien: Inspiring Lives by Robert Blackham in Frading
Link to Guide to Middle Earth by Colin Duriez in Freading
Link to A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Loconte in the catalog
Link to The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy by Bassham in the catalog
Link to The fellowship : the literary lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis by Philip Zaleski in the catalog
Link to Tolkien Karukoski (film) in the catalog
Link to The Lord Of The Rings - At Dawn In Rivendell (music) in the catalog
Link to The Hobbit (film) in the catalog
Link to Music From The Hobbit And The Lord Of The Rings (music) in Hoopla
Link to lord of the rings fellowship of the ring (film) in the catalog
link to Voices of Poetry - Volume 1 by J. R. R. Tolkien and Theodore Roethke in Hoopla
Link to lord of the rings the two towers (film) in the catalog
Link to J.R.R. Tolkien by Colin Duriez in Hoopla
Link to lord of the rings return of the king (film) in the catalog

Link to Revolutionary Biographies Resource Guide Series