.::History of J.R.R. Tolkien::.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892. After serving in the First World War, he embarked upon a distinguished academic career and was recognised as one of the finest philologists in the world. He is best known as the creator of Middle-Earth and author of the classic works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. His books are translated into over 40 languages and have sold many millions of copies world-wide. He was awarded a CBE, and an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University in 1972. He died in 1973 at the age of 81.
In 2000 Tolkien was chosen as Author of the Century, and in 1997 The Lord of the Rings was voted Book of the Century in a poll sponsored by Channel 4 TV and bookseller Waterstone's, amongst others.



1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born to English parents on January 3, in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

1895 Tolkien's mother, Mabel, returned with Ronald (as he was called by family and early friends) and his brother, Hilary, to the West Midlands of England.

1896 Ronald's father, Arthur, died in February. The family moved from industrial Birmingham to rural Sarehole.

1900 Began attending Birmingham's King Edward's School. He already exhibited a precocious linguistic imagination and created with his cousins a series of languages. Also in 1900, Mabel and her sister, May, converted to Roman Catholicism. Ronald and Hilary were baptized into the Catholic Church and remained devout Catholics for the rest of their lives.

1904 Mabel Tolkien died. Care of twelve-year-old Ronald and ten-year-old Hilary was assumed by Father Francis Morgan.

1908 With his brother, moved to a boarding house behind the Birmingham Oratory. Edith Bratt, a fellow boarder, became his friend and eventually his wife.

1911 At Oxford, he studied the classics, Old English, and the Germanic languages and struck up a friendship with C. S. Lewis (later a fellow professor at Oxford), with whom he shared his thoughts and writings.

1914 Became betrothed to Edith Bratt. World War I declared.

1915 Graduated from Oxford with first-class honors in English language and literature. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers.

1916 Married Edith Bratt. Saw action in the Somme offensive.

1917 Discharged from the army. First son, John, born. Began writing the stories that evolved into The Book of Lost Tales and, eventually, The Silmarillion.

1918-20 Assistant Lexicographer on the Oxford English Dictionary.

1920 Second son, Michael, born.

1920-25 Reader, later Professor (1924), of English Language at the University of Leeds.

1924 Third son, Christopher, born.

1925-45 Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. His specialty was Anglo-Saxon and its relation to similar old Germanic languages. His double perspective on the texts in those languages as both linguistic sources and literature was described as "his unique insight at once into the language of poetry and the poetry of language."

1929 Fourth child, Priscilla, born. Got into habit of writing illustrated Christmas letters to the children (The Father Christmas Letters) and telling original bedtime stories.

1930s First began telling his children of a little creature named Bilbo. (He later recalled a day of marking students' examination papers: "One of the candidates had mercifully left one of the pages with no writing... and I wrote on it: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'"

1936 Completed his book about the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Delivered his influential lecture, "Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics."

1937 The Hobbit published, with maps and illustrations prepared by Tolkien. Publishers started asking for a sequel. In December, Tolkien wrote them, "I have written the first chapter of a new story about Hobbits— 'A long expected party.'"

1945-59 Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, a position he held until his retirement in 1959.

1949 Farmer Giles of Ham published.

1954-55 The Lord of the Rings published in three parts.

1956 A twelve-episode adaptation of The Lord of the Rings presented by BBC radio.

1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil published.



1964 Tree and Leaf published.

1965 An American paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings published, which became a cult novel on college campuses.

1967 Smith of Wooton Major and The Road Goes Ever On published.

1968 Moved with Edith to Poole, near Bournemouth.

1971 After his wife's death, returned to Oxford.

1972 Received a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II.

1973 Died, at age eighty-one, on September 2.

1976 The Father Christmas Letters published. 1977 Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth published.

1981 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, published.

1982 Mr. Bliss published.

1983 The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays published.

1983-97 The History of Middle-earth series (twelve volumes) published.

2001-03 The epic motion-picture trilogy of The Lord of the Rings is released.