J. R. R. Tolkien |J. R. R. Tolkien| Tolkien, aged 24, in
military uniform, while serving in the British Army during World
War I, 1916. |Born||John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 3 January 1892
Bloemfontein, Orange Free State |Died||2 September 1973
|Occupation||Author, academic, philologist, poet|
|Genres||Fantasy, high fantasy, translation, criticism| |Notable
work(s)||The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings |Spouse(s)||Edith
Bratt (1916–1971)| John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (pron.: //;[a]
3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet,
philologist, and university professor, best known as the author
of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the
Rings, and The Silmarillion. He served as the Rawlinson and
Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford,
from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and
Literature at Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959. He was
at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members
of the informal literary discussion group