You may know of J.R.R. Tolkien. If you don’t then you have probably heard of some of his famous books: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. His magical imagination, and his ability to paint a reader’s mind with words on a page had built a whole community of fans and a legacy that continues to remind people about all his achievements and skills.
J.R.R. Tolkien had shown an interest in writing from an early stage in his life, but he started venturing deeper into writing from his University years in Oxford. Tolkien started University In 1911. In Oxford Tolkien studied English Language and Literature. Three years into University, Tolkien started his first fragment ‘The Voyage of Éarendle the Evening Star’. From this point Tolkien continued to write many more books and poems: The story of Kullervo; The Horns of Ylmir; A Song for Aryador, and many more. In 1915 J.R.R. Tolkien finished studying at Oxford, with first class honours.
Another well known author is C.S. Lewis. You may know his from reading The Chronicles of Narnia. Well C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were friends, and first met each other in 1926, at a Merton English Faculty meeting. Throughout Tolkien’s career, Tolkien would always look to C.S. Lewis for him to critique Tolkien’s work.
One of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famous series of books was The Hobbit. Avery fun fact to know is how Tolkien started to write The Hobbit. One day Tolkien was marking some school certificates and felt bored. He saw a blank page, and suddenly, inspired, he started to write ‘In a hole on the ground there lived a hobbit’. The Hobbit was originally written for his children, but ended up being his second best-selling book, and over 100 million copies have been sold. The Hobbit was first published in 1937 and after the publication this was when Tolkien started to peak and was famous around the world.
J.R.R. Tolkien started writing the first book of The Lord of the Rings as a sequel to one of his previous books: The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings (also known as LOTR) was J.R.R. Tolkien’s best selling book, with over 150 million copies sold. Tolkien started writing the first book of LOTR in 1942, then was published in 1954, taking Tolkien twelve years to write. As much as Tolkien loved his books he had to sell his rights of ownership over his books for the money. In 1969 Tolkien sold the rights to United Artists for £10,000 (which is valued at more than £200,000 today). Then in 1976 United Artists sold the right to Middle-Earth Enterprises. Tolkien’s estate at this time is at a value of £2,911,000.
Throughout Tolkien’s life, he has achieved many accomplishments. It is estimated that over 600 million copies of Tolkien’s books have been sold. Tolkien was nominated for an award, and won award too during his lifetime, but after his passing he has won many more awards: 20 nominations and 12 awards won.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing has brought so much joy to people through books, plays, and films. Although he is gone, his legacy of books will stay and continue to live on.