John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English language and literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was a strongly committed Roman Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, with whom he shared membership in the literary discussion group the Inklings.

In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes The Silmarillion and other posthumously published books about what he called a legendarium, a fictional mythology of the remote past of Earth, called Arda, and Middle-earth (from middangeard, the lands inhabitable by Men) in particular. Most of these works were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Tolkien. The enduring popularity and influence of Tolkien's works have established him as the "father of the modern high fantasy genre". Tolkien's other published fiction includes adaptations of stories originally told to his children and not directly related to the legendarium.

Biography

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The Tolkien family

As far as is known, most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen. The Tolkien family had its roots in Saxony (Germany), but had been living in England since the 18th century, becoming "quickly and intensely English (not British)". (Letters no. 165) The surname Tolkien is Anglicized from Tollkiehn (i.e. German tollkühn, "foolhardy", the etymological English translation would be dull-keen, a literal translation of oxymoron). The surname Rashbold of two characters in The Notion Club Papers is a pun on this.(undergraduate John Jethro Rashbold, and "old Professor Rashbold at Pembroke"; Sauron Defeated, page 151, Letters, 165)

More on [ J. R. R. Tolkien ]

L.A. Times - Books & Talks

'The Second Plane' by Martin Amis
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
September 11: Terror and Boredom IT would be too easy to read Martin Amis' slim book on Sept. 11 in a day and to dismiss it with a politically correct glare. The dozen essays, columns and reviews and two short stories in "The Second Plane: September 11, Terror and Boredom" are more illuminating than that, though deeply, sometimes self-indulgently flawed.
'The House of Widows' by Askold Melnyczuk
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Family secrets lie at the end of a dark and twisted path FROM its puzzling opening line ("The most common grammatical error is the lie"), there's an ominous vibe to Askold Melnyczuk's third novel, "The House of Widows," and the sense of unease lingers until the final sentence. It's a mysterious, masterfully taut story in which dread plays a prominent role.
'Marco Polo' by Laurence Bergreen
Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700
An account of the adventures of the celebrated 13th century world traveler. MARCO POLO was only 17 when he departed for China in 1271 with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. Those two merchants of Venice were known to the boy primarily as storytellers of their fabulous exploits, writes award-winning biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen, for they had been absent more than 16 years, Marco's entire childhood. The pair had followed trade routes east, encountered exotic countries and customs and survived many perils; they had even lived for a time at the court of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire. Eventually they agreed to accompany his emissary west to the pope, vowing to return to Cambulac (Beijing) with several items the Great Khan had requested.

NYT > Books

Books of The Times: Two Kindred Souls, Working Side by Side
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:16:32 -0000
“The Brass Verdict” has the sneaky metabolism of any Michael Connelly book.
Ideas & Trends: Yet Once More, a Laurel Not Bestowed
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:26:09 -0000
American poets, beloved by critics, have never passed muster with the Swedes.
Decades on the Trail of a Shadowy Agency
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:05:47 -0000
The latest book by James Bamford, an expert on the National Security Agency, reconstructs the agency’s recent history.

Fiction & Poetry

Roddy Doyle: "Sleep"
Roddy Doyle Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
It was the thing he’d always loved about her. The way she could sleep. When they’d just started going with each other, before they really knew each other, he’d lie awake, hoping she’d wake up, praying for it, dying. But even then he’d loved to look at her while she . . .
Gary Snyder: "Mu Ch’i’s Persimmons"
Gary Snyder Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
There is no remedy for satisfying hunger other than a painted rice cake. --Dōgen, November, 1242. On a back wall down the hall lit by a side glass door is the scroll of Mu Ch’i’s great sumi painting, “Persimmons” The wind-weights hanging from the axles hold it . . .
Frederick Seidel: "Poem by the Bridge at Ten-shin"
Frederick Seidel Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
This jungle poem is going to be my last. This space walk is. Racing in a cab through springtime Central Park, I kept my nose outside the window like a dog. The stars above my bed at night are vast. I think it is uncool to call young women Ms . . .

London Review of Books

Don't Ask Henry · Alan Hollinghurst: Sissiness
The story of Belchamber's publication is probably better known than the book itself, which, like its author, has suffered the ambiguous fate of becoming an accessory to the life of a more important writer. It is his friend Henry James who keeps Sturgis's novel distantly in view, at the same time as casting a long shadow over it. James read it in proof, and wrote a characteristic sequence of letters to Sturgis about it, beginning with neat praise and mild demurrals, but quickly building up to such fundamental criticisms of the book that the demoralised author said he would withdraw it altogether; at which James protested and pleaded, successfully though not with any retraction of the criticisms he had made.
Cut, Kill, Dig, Drill · Jonathan Raban: Sarah Palin's Cunning
Sarah Palin has put a new face and voice to the long-standing, powerful, but inchoate movement in US political life that one might see as a mutant strain of Poujadism, inflected with a modern American accent. There are echoes of the Poujadist agenda of 1950s France in its contempt for metropolitan elites, fuelling the resentment of the provinces towards the capital and the countryside towards the city, in its xenophobic strain of nationalism, sturdy, paysan resistance to taxation, hostility to big business, and conviction that politicians are out to exploit the common man.
Why Not Eat an Eclair? · David Runciman: Why Vote?
Why would anyone vote for Barack Obama? Not why would anyone want to see Obama elected president rather than John McCain (or Hillary Clinton for that matter), but why would anyone who desired that outcome think that his or her individual vote could make the slightest difference in helping to bring it about? General elections are never decided by a single vote, so no one's vote is ever going to be missed. If you want Obama to win, and plan to vote for him, but you forget, or find yourself otherwise detained, don't worry - the final result will be unaffected by your failure to show up, even if you happen to live in a swing state like Ohio or Florida. If Obama is winning the state, he will do perfectly well without you; if he is losing, there is nothing you can do to help him get over the line, because the winning line will always be further away than your paltry individual vote. Either way, you are not needed, so why bother to vote at all?

Books | guardian.co.uk

Booker club: A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
Sam Jordison Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:07:20 -0000
Sam Jordison: As with others on the list, Toltz's 700-plus-page debut is another potentially excellent book undone by its excesses
German literary critic rejects lifetime-achievement gong live on air
Jess Smee Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:01:41 -0000
Germany's top literary critic spurned a lifetime-achievement prize and tore into television. By Jess Smee
Patrick Barkham meets survival expert Ray Mears
Patrick Barkham Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:05:05 -0000
He admires David Cameron and thinks it's sometimes better to shoot wildlife than photograph it. Survival expert Ray Mears is full of surprises, Patrick Barkham discovers

NPR Topics: Books

Le Clezio, Portrait Of A Gentle Writer
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:19:00 -0400
Though born in France, Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustav Le Clezio is a nomadic writer, whose work has been defined by his life of travel around the world. For him, storytelling means melting into the background.
Publisher Of Palin Biography Hits Jackpot
Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:27:00 -0400
A small publisher in suburban Seattle has hit the big time with a biography of Sarah Palin. Epicenter Press published Sarah: How A Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down months before Palin hit the national spotlight.
The Booker Prize: Our London Cabbie's Review
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0400
Who needs the Booker Prize committee when we have our own Will Grozier? The London cabbie reviews the short list of books ahead of Tuesday's announcement of the Man Booker prizewinner.

Slashdot: Book Reviews

Nagios 3 Enterprise Network Monitoring
samzenpus Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:15:00 -0000
jgoguen writes "Nagios, originally known as Netsaint, has been a long-time favourite for network and device monitoring due to its flexibility, ease of use, and efficiency. Nagios provided, and still provides today, a low-cost, versatile alternative to commercial network monitoring applications. Nagios 3 takes a huge step forward compared to Nagios 2, providing improved flexibility, ease of use and extensibility, all while also making significant performance enhancements. Due to its extensibility and ease of use, no device or situation has yet been found that cannot be monitored using Nagios and a pre-made or custom script, plug-in or enhancement." Read on for the rest of jgoguen's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide
samzenpus Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:05:00 -0000
Martin Ecker writes "Mobile phones and other embedded devices are getting more and more powerful each year. The availability of dedicated hardware for 3D rendering is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and the latest mobile phones come with 3D hardware acceleration that rivals the power of desktop graphics hardware. OpenGL ES 2.0 is the latest version of a cross-platform, low-level graphics API to utilize these new resources available in embedded devices. The OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide published by Addison-Wesley Publishing aims to help the reader make use of the full power of OpenGL ES 2.0 to create interesting 3D applications." Keep reading for the rest of Martin's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis
samzenpus Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:02:00 -0000
cgjherr writes "If the recent financial meltdown has left you wondering, 'When does exponential decay function stop?' then I have the book for you. Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis is the kind of book that only comes along every twenty years. A tome so densely packed with scientific and mathematical formulas that it almost dares you to try and understand it all. A "For Dummies" book starts with a gentle introduction to the technology. This is more like a "for Mentats" book. It assumes that you know Excel very well. The first chapter alone will have you in awe as you see the author turn the lowly Excel into something that rivals Mathematica using VBA, brains, and a heaping helping of fortitude." Read on for the rest of Jack's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Books

Instead of ‘Chihuahua,’ try a book
Despite the fact that the New York Times review called it only "reasonably diverting," it seems that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" is No. 1 at the box office this holiday weekend.
No poetic justice for the US?
In the US this year, much angst has been focused on the subject of the Nobel Prize and the disinclination of the Swedish judges to offer the award for literature to an American. But, says critic David Orr, in a piece in tomorrow's New York Times, there's actually an even ...
‘Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World’
The day a stray cat unexpectedly arrived in our dog-centric home, my ardently cat-loving cousin Jeanne had a word of advice. “He’s not a dog,” she reminded me. “A dog leaps immediately into your heart. A cat arrives with a slow crawl.”

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