Today in History - 1892
Legendary author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
As the legend goes, Tolkien found a blank page in a student’s examination book one day while grading papers and wrote on it: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” This idea grew into a bedtime story for his children and eventually into the classic, beloved and eminently successful children’s book The Hobbit, which was published in 1937. The tale’s success did little to convince publishers that some of Tolkien’s other long-time labors, including Silmarillion, was saleable, and Tolkien was convinced to create a sequel to The Hobbit for publication. The now-famous three-part trilogy The Lord of the Rings was finally published in 1954 and 1955.
Though they have been largely overshadowed by the amazing commercial success of Lord of the Rings, Tolkien did publish a number of other works in his lifetime, in addition to those like Silmarillionthat were published posthumously, including various scholarly essays, translations of Middle English works and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major.
As the legend goes, Tolkien found a blank page in a student’s examination book one day while grading papers and wrote on it: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” This idea grew into a bedtime story for his children and eventually into the classic, beloved and eminently successful children’s book The Hobbit, which was published in 1937. The tale’s success did little to convince publishers that some of Tolkien’s other long-time labors, including Silmarillion, was saleable, and Tolkien was convinced to create a sequel to The Hobbit for publication. The now-famous three-part trilogy The Lord of the Rings was finally published in 1954 and 1955.
Though they have been largely overshadowed by the amazing commercial success of Lord of the Rings, Tolkien did publish a number of other works in his lifetime, in addition to those like Silmarillionthat were published posthumously, including various scholarly essays, translations of Middle English works and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major.
