John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE FRSL (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. He then moved within the same university to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, positions he held from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.
On 21 September 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit was first published in the United Kingdom.
Tolkien was an academic linguist who held the position of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford, where he was friends with fellow academic and novelist C. S. Lewis. Alongside his academic pursuits he had a creative mind that saw him produce a series playful poems and stories for his children. Tolkien combined both these areas in The Hobbit. While it is primarily a children’s book, part of its appeal is the rich fantasy world that Tolkien created by drawing upon his knowledge of Old English literature and early Germanic mythology.
Tolkien is said to have taken up to two years to write the original manuscript for the book, copies of which he lent to various friends. Through contact with one of his students at Oxford, the publisher George Allen & Unwin Ltd. obtained a copy, which was given a positive review by the 10-year old son of the owner and encouraged Unwin to publish it.
The initial run of 1,500 copies sold out within three months, and further runs proved similarly popular. Arguably The Hobbit’s greatest legacy is that it spawned the creation of The Lord of the Rings, the sequel that Tolkien was encouraged to write after the runaway success of The Hobbit.
The Hobbit has remained in print ever since it was first published, although Tolkien made a number of revisions to the text over the course of the next thirty years. This was done to bring plot elements into line with the storyline of the subsequent Lord of the Rings, and also to retain copyright in the United States.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. He then moved within the same university to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, positions he held from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.
Tolkien is said to have taken up to two years to write the original manuscript for the book, copies of which he lent to various friends. Through contact with one of his students at Oxford, the publisher George Allen & Unwin Ltd. obtained a copy, which was given a positive review by the 10-year old son of the owner and encouraged Unwin to publish it.
The initial run of 1,500 copies sold out within three months, and further runs proved similarly popular. Arguably The Hobbit’s greatest legacy is that it spawned the creation of The Lord of the Rings, the sequel that Tolkien was encouraged to write after the runaway success of The Hobbit.
The Hobbit has remained in print ever since it was first published, although Tolkien made a number of revisions to the text over the course of the next thirty years. This was done to bring plot elements into line with the storyline of the subsequent Lord of the Rings, and also to retain copyright in the United States.
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