A renowned scholar of the English language, Tolkien is today
celebrated as the father of the high fantasy genre. Drawing on his
knowledge of languages, mythology and legend, he created an entire
alternative reality, Middle Earth, and populated it with hobbits, orcs,
ents, dragons, magicians and giant spiders.
Packed with fascinating facts about Tolkien's life and labors, this
delightful volume includes extracts from his works, letters and
interviews, as well as from his contemporaries and admirers. It's a
celebration of the writer whose imagination and creative genius changed
the course of fantasy literature.
'I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of
this world alone.'
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) 'I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but
size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe,
and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French
cooking...'
Tolkien in a letter to Deborah Webster, 25 October 1958 In July
1915, Tolkien took part in the Somme offensive, the bloodiest battle of
the Great War. While recovering in hospital from trench fever, he wrote
his first Elvish word list, as well as the first fragments of what would
become The Silmarillion. The inspiration for The Hobbit came to
Tolkien unexpectedly in the summer of 1930, while he was working his way
through a huge stack of student essays. On a blank page he found himself
scrawling, 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'"
