Tolkien: A Biography

by Michael White (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.31

  This biography recounts Tolkien's early childhood in South Africa followed by his family's return to England after his banker father's death. The Tolkiens settled in the highly industrialized city of Birmingham in the 1890s which was still surrounded by breathtaking countryside. Thus the industrialized heart of the Empire and the sylvan idyll of the woods and hills became important extremes for much of Tolkien's thinking and writing, leading up to that most inspired moment when, as an Oxford don, Tolkien was marking exam papers and noticed his student had left a blank page in the answer book. Suddenly he wrote: In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit . In typical Tolkien fashion, he was intrigued by this and decided to find out more about hobbits. The rest is history.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.31

  There are few writers who can claim the popularity and enduring appeal of J.R.R. Tolkien. His celebrated novels have sold in excess of 160 million copies, and are in large part responsible for seeding the entire genre of fantasy fiction. Now, renowned biographer Michael White looks back over the little-known life of this most treasured of writers. In absorbing and revealing detail, he chronicles Tolkien's childhood years and the tragic early death of his parents; his burgeoning romance with Edith Brett; his many years as an Oxford academic; his friendship with C.S. Lewis and the founding of 'The Inklings' group. White describes why Tolkien's writing took off so spectacularly - and how The Lord of the Rings became the must-read of the late Sixties counter-culture. Informed and fascinating, Tolkien is the fascinating story of how the man who created The Hobbit became one of the giants of modern literature.