J. R. R. Tolkien CBE FRSL |
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Tolkien, aged 24 in 1916
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Born | John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 3 January 1892 Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (modern-day South Africa) |
Died | 2 September 1973 Bournemouth, United Kingdom |
(aged 81)
Occupation | Author, academic, philologist, poet |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Exeter College, Oxford |
Genre | Fantasy, high fantasy, translation, literary criticism |
Notable works | |
Spouse | Edith Tolkien (m. 1916; d. 1971) |
Children |
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Military career | |
Service/branch | British Army |
Years of service | 1915–1920 |
Rank | Lieutenant |
Unit | Lancashire Fusiliers |
Battles/wars |
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE, FRSL (/ˈtɒlkiːn/; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high-fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959. 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After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion.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 within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings.