J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was born in Bloemfontein, in the Orange Free State (later a province of South Africa) where his father worked as a banker. At the age of three John Ronald Reuel Tolkein, his mother Mabel and his younger brother Hilary moved to England. His father died of rheumatic fever in South Africa, leaving his family destitute. The Tolkiens lived by the aid of Mabel's family. However, Mabel's family cut off financial support after she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900. In 1904, Mabel died of diabetes. Guardianship of the twelve year old Tolkien and his brother was given to Father Francis Xavier Morgan of Birmingham.
In 1911, Tolkien began attending Oxford college, graduating with honors in English Language and Literature in 1915. In 1913, after a five year, interrupted courtship, Tolkien and Edith Bratt became engaged. The two married in March 1916, a few months before Tolkien shipped out for service in World War One. He was sent back to England in October of that year after contracting trench fever. While recovering in England, Tolkien began work on The Book of Lost Tales. After the war, Tolkien worked compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, then was a professor at the University of Leeds where he worked on translations as well as teaching. In 1925, he began teaching at Oxford University, where he taught until his retirement in 1959. In 1936, Tolkien published The Hobbit, which sold well enough for his publishers to request a sequel. This wish was fulfilled by The Lord of the Rings, the three volumes published in 1954 and 1955. The books ended up becoming popular enough to allow Tolkien and his wife to retire in comfort.
In 1972, the queen appointed Tolkien a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was given an honorary doctorate from Oxford.
|1st edition cover|
Length: 458 pages
Subject/Genre: Middle Earth/Fantasy
The Silmarillion was the first of Tolkien's works about Middle Earth to be published since The Lord of the Rings. Published after his death, The Silmarillion was edited by J.R.R.'s son, Christopher. The Silmarillion is a history of Middle Earth, comprised of legend, folklore, and 'official' histories. It starts with the creation of the Earth (one that is very Judeo-Christian inspired), and the creation of the elves, dwarves, men, and other great and terrible creatures that roamed Middle Earth.
Before I speak more about the content of The Silmarillion, I should point out the oddity of it being the single bestselling novel of the year. The Silmarillion is a very dense, frequently dry book that I can only see as being of interest to those who are already fans of The Lord of the Rings. While some sci-fi and horror are on the list in the coming decades, this is the only fantasy novel that made it, and it's not a very accessible novel at that. Add to that that it was published more than two decades after the books that made it popular, The Silmarillion would seem to have a lot going against it. However, in the sixties and seventies, Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings received massive popularity within the U.S. counter culture. Between the publication of TLOR and The Silmarillion, bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Genesis, wrote songs explicitly and allusively about Middle Earth, and that's ignoring the bands that have since faded into obscurity, or details like T. Rex's drummer changing his name to Stephen Peregrin Took and whatever the hell this thing Leonard Nimoy made is: