He was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa but his parents were both from England. He lost much of his family at an early age. He fought in World War I, and after the war he found a job helping to produce the Oxford English Dictionary. Tolkien was very interested in languages, and he had studied at Oxford University. Soon he became a professor of English Language at the University of Leeds. He was then a professor at the University of Oxford until 1959, when he retired. He also was good friends with many other writers and scholars, most notably C. S. Lewis, who wrote the "Narnia" books, "The Screwtape Letters", and many essays on Christian theology. Tolkien himself was a devout Catholic.