num_pages: 288
description: One day while grading papers, J.R.R. Tolkien inexplicably wrote "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" in the margin - thereby setting out on the path that would bring him fame, fortune, and the devotion of millions. A veteran of the Battle of the Somme, he was a close friend of C. S. Lewis and an editor of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY before becoming the Merton Professor of English at Oxford.
language: English
title: Tolkien: The Authorized Biography
titlecomplete: Tolkien: The Authorized Biography
characters: C.S. Lewis, Beowulf, J.R.R. Tolkien
genres: British Literature, Autobiography, Historical, History, Reference, Biography Memoir, Biography, Literature, Memoir, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 15160
publisher: Ballantine Books