J ohn Ro n a ld Re u el To l k i en, C BE (/ˈtɒl k iːn/ tol-k e en;[a] 3 J an u ar y 1 8 9 2 – 2 Se p t ember 1 9 7 3) wa s an E n g li sh w riter, po et, phil ol og ist, a nd un iv ers i ty pro fe ss or, b est k nown as the au thor of the class ic hi g h fan ta s y w or ks The Ho bb it, The Lord of the Ring s, an d T h e Si l mari ll i on. He se rv ed as the Rawlin son a nd Bosworth Pro fe ss o r of An glo-S ax on a nd Fe ll ow of P em broke Col le ge, O x f or d, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959.[1] He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. After Tolkiens death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his fathers extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion.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 a fantasy world called Arda, and Middle-earth[b] within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings.[2] While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien,[3] 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[4][5]—or, more precisely, of high fantasy.[6] In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.[7] Forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009.[8]
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 19:07:31 +0000
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