Biography
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Born
3 January 1892
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Born In
Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa
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Died
2 September 1973 (aged 81)
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist, best known for his high fantasy works "The Hobbit" (1937) and "The Lord of the Rings" (1954–55).
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Oxford. He later became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and a Fellow of Merton College, positions he held from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis and a member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.
After his death, his son Christopher Tolkien published works based on his father’s notes and unpublished manuscripts, including "The Silmarillion." Together with "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," these writings form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda and, within it, Middle-earth. Tolkien used the term legendarium to describe the larger part of these writings between 1951 and 1955.
Although other authors had previously published fantasy works, the success of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" significantly increased popular interest in the genre and influenced the creation of numerous subsequent fantasy books and authors. Tolkien is widely recognized as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century and is often described as the "father" of modern fantasy literature.
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