Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien Ltd. The earliest illustrations of Tolkien's works were drawn by the author himself. In 1937, "The Hobbit" was first illustrated by professional draughtsmen for the American edition. Tolkien was very critical of these, and in 1946 he rejected illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of the "Hobbit" as "too 'Disnified'". Milein Cosman illustrated "Farmer Giles of Ham" in 1948, and Tolkien was not happy with this work, either. In 1949, Cosman was replaced by Pauline Baynes, who became Tolkien's favourite illustrator and who created drawings for "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" as well as for "Farmer Giles of
J. R. R. Tolkien this origin of the name has not been proven. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province in South Africa) to Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel, "née" Suffield (1870–1904). The couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, who was born on 17 February 1894. As a child, Tolkien was bitten by a large baboon spider