J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English writer, philologist, and academic whose imaginative fiction helped define modern fantasy. Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, he was raised in England and studied at Exeter College, Oxford. He served in the First World War and later became a professor of Anglo-Saxon and then of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Tolkien’s scholarship informed his invented languages and mythic histories, most famously in *The Hobbit* (1937) and *The Lord of the Rings* (1954–55). His wider legendarium was published posthumously, including *The Silmarillion* (1977).