Thomas Jarvela English Pd.7

2/13/97 Book report

1. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien), (1892 - 1973), author of many books,

most notably “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

2. J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the best known authors of our time. One of his outstanding

accomplishments was the creation of “The Lord of the Rings”.

Tolkien was born in Africa on January 3, 1892. He lived there with his mother and father. When he became sick he moved with his brother and mother to England. A year later his father died. Tolkien and Hilary(his brother), were home-schooled by their mother for a few years then sent to a public school. Their mother died several years later.

He excelled tremendously in his school, then met a young woman, Edith Mary.

Before he married her though, he served in World War I. After the war he married her and moved on to Oxford. There he became a professor of English and Anglo-Saxon.

After his years teaching at Oxford, he joined some literary clubs which were based on constructive criticism otherwise, he never changed his work because of other people’s ideas.

In 1928 he started writing the Hobbit, which was completed in 1930, but not published until 1938. This would lead to his biggest success. Upon the creation of this book and two others, he returned to teaching English. In 1949 he completed the “The Lord of the Rings”. He sent it to a publisher, but it was rejected. It was finally accepted and published in 1954. The publishing company,

(2) decided that it was too long (about 1,000 pages) and should be split into three parts to cut down on publishing costs. It was divided into these three titles, “The Fellowship of the

Ring”, “The Two Towers”, and “The Return of the King”. The first sold out quickly, and readers demanded the immediate publication of the other two. Tolkien was awarded the

“Best fantasy novel of 1956”. In 1968, he and his wife moved to Bournemouth for privacy. At first he had liked all the attention, but then started to tire of it. After the death of his wife on, November 2, 1971 Tolkien moved to an apartment in Oxford. He died on

September 2, 1973 at the age of 81.

3. I think that J.R.R. Tolkien is special and deserves to be written about because he

wrote one of the most interesting, best selling, book series in our lifetime. He was one

of the most inspiring writers of his time. He consulted and supported the also famous

C.S. Lewis, author of several works, including “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Tolkien

was thought as of the best fantasy author of 1956(above). He also helped and inspired

many of his students.

4. I think that this book was very interesting. It told a lot of things that I never knew

about J.R.R. Tolkien. I really liked it because he is one of my favorite authors. I

enjoyed reading about his early life and would have never even thought that he was

born in Africa. I had always believed that he had been born in England. I learned much from this book. Tolkien had a fascinating life, and I wish that more people would read this book and learn about it.