J. R. R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, (; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Silmarillion". He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both
J. R. Black on a singing career, touring Australia, India, China, and finally Japan. Performances in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1864 received enthusiastic reviews in the local press, as did his performances in Yokohama in June and July of the same year. Though he had no intention of staying in Japan, he was to remain there for another eleven or more years. In 1864, Albert Hansard, owner of the "Japan Herald" (among the first English-language newspapers in Japan), offered J. R. Black a job in his auction business, and in 1865 offered him a partnership in the newspaper. In 1867, the partnership