J.R.R INFORMATION REPORT
Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, 3rd of January 1892-1973, J.R.R Tolkein also known as John Ronald Reuel Tolkein is a famous and well known philologist and writer, author of many mythopoeia and high fantasy books including his most famous ones ‘The Hobbit’ along with ‘The Lord of The Rings’.
POPULARITY OF HIS BOOKS
Tolkein’s most popular books ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of The Rings’ share their connections through tales, poems, fictional history, made-up languages and literary essays about their fantasy worlds like ‘Arda’ and ‘Middle Earth’; ‘The Lord of The Rings’ is a sequel to ‘The Hobbit’.
The unexpected success of both of these books made a profound interest in the fantasy genre which deeply inspired many more new fantasy books authors. Because of that, up to this day J.R.R Tolkein is mainly identified as the “Father” of modern fantasy literature and regarded as one of the most influential authors of all time.
EARLY LIFE
To begin, J.R.R Tolkein’s parental ancestors were middle class craftsmen that made and sold clocks, watches and piano throughout London and Birmingham. As the years went by from 1925-1945 Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and was a Fellow(recognised privileged member) of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. Later on, he moved into the same university to become the Merton Professor of English Language & Literature and a Fellow of Merton College. Held kept these positions from 1945 until in 1959 when he retired.
Surprisingly, as additional information, Tolkein was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth ll on the 28th of March 1972!
THE HOBBIT
J.R.R was 38 years old when he began writing ‘The Hobbit’ in 1930; it was in an effort to combine his two literary interests, a mythology of England and stories for his four children. As a philologist he was very familiar with the old northern myths and epics. After two and a half years, ‘The Hobbit’ was finally published in 1937 and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for the best juvenile fiction.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Seeing the succession of ‘The Hobbit’, Tolkein’s publisher, Stanley Unwin asked for a sequel in which Tolkein offered a draft of the masterpiece that would later be ‘The Silmarillion’. Stanley refused the draft commenting it was obscure and “too Celtic” leading Tolkein to begin working on a new story that became ‘The Lord of The Rings’ written between 1937-1949 at age 45. ‘The Lord of The Rings’ was wrote with his friends in mind as it was intended to be a tribute to them as they had sadly passed away during WWl, especially to his closest friends, Robert Gilson and Geoffrey Smith. The sequel eventually developed into a series of three books that were all published between 1954 and 1955.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, J.R.R Tolkein is an excellent and inspiring English writer with many magnificent high fantasy novels he has written throughout his life since he was 30. Without him, ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of The Rings’ would’ve never existed, the same with the many authors and books that have took inspiration from him to this day.