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
Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien was still a subject of debate in 2015. Richard C. West compiled "Tolkien Criticism: An Annotated Checklist" in 1981. The pace of scholarly publications on Tolkien increased dramatically in the early 2000s. The dedicated journal "Tolkien Studies" has been appearing since 2004. The open-access "Journal of Tolkien Research" has been published since 2014. A bibliographic database of Tolkien criticism is maintained at Wheaton College. Earlier reactions could be very negative. The editor and publisher Edmund Wilson made harsh comments about Tolkien's work, which he referred to as "juvenile trash", saying "Dr. Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct