J.R.R. Tolkien
John Ronald Ruelen Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in South Africa. He moved back to England with his mother in 1895 while his father stayed in South Africa. His mother died from diabetes in 1904 at 34 years of age.
In 1908, after living as an orphan alongside his brother with an aunt, Tolkien starts school at Oxford. Seven years later, in 1915, he obtains his bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature. A year later, he joins the war in France and returns to England wounded by a grenade. While he recovers from his wound, he begins writing The Silmarillion, the basis of the story of Middle Earth and its inhabitants.
In 1925, Tolkien joins E.V. Gordon to write and publish Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A year later he meets and makes good friends with C. S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe).
In 1937, he publishes The Hobbit, and begins a sequel, much requested by his readers that would, ten years later, become The Lord of the Rings. In 1949, he publishes Farmer Giles of Ham. In 1954, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers is published. 1955 sees the publishing of the last volume of the The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.
On September 2, 1973, Tolkien dies at 81 years of age.