John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3 1892, at Bloemfontein, South Africa.
He leaves South Africa for England, as he has serious trouble with the heat.
In 1896, after his father's death, he lives at Sarehole near Birmingham (England, close to Wales).
He has a younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel, born in 1894. At their mothers death, it's a priest, Father Francis who takes care of them, but soon after they are "forced" to go and live with their aunt Beatrice Suffield and finally, they live at Mrs Faulkner's orphan house.

He is very successful at shool. He attends "King Edward's School" (where he was captain of the school rugby team), "St. Philip's Grammar School", and finally, Oxford University.
At the age of 23, after graduating, he joined the British army and took part in the Battle of the Somme. He was eventually sent home after spending most of 1917 in the hospital suffering from "trench fever". During this period, just about all his friends die.

He has a brilliant career at Oxford University. He participates as specialist on the writing of The Oxford Dictionary.
His succeeding titles witness of his impressive work : "Reader", "Professor", "Rawlinson", "Bosworth Professor" and finally "Merton Professor" until he retires in at the age 67 in 1959.
Tolkien was a specialist in languages and dialects, mainly ancient.

His main craft was the study Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and its relation to similar languages (Old Norse, Old German, and Gothic), and he gave great interest to the dialects of Mercia, (where he grew up and lived), but he was also specialised in Middle English, and he also became very familiar with the dialect used in the Ancrene Wisse (a twelfth century manuscript).

Tolkien was very interested by Northern culture and Legends. Many of our Scandinavian friends are surprised to find in his writing names of characters they know from old Viking Legends !

At 16, he meets Edith Bratt, a 19 year old girl staying at the same orphan house he is.
Their friendship deepens in short time. Father Francis imposes to him that he has no contact with her in any way, (including any correspondence), and this, until he is 21.
He obeys, and pursues his investigations on the marvels of words.
In 1913, at 21, he & Edith are at last together, and they marry in 1916. They have three sons, John Francis Reuel (1917, who became priest), Michael Hilary Reuel (1920) & Christopher Reuel (1924), and a daughter, Priscilla (1929).

In 1918 John & Edith are having a walk in the woods, and Edith dances romantically for John.
This magical moment is so moving to John that it inspires him the story of Beren et Lúthien, and from that moment, he is Beren and Edith is Lúthien.

From his own memory, it was a day he was correcting his pupils class work - he hated doing this - he was just staring at the blank page he had as work from one of them. And as in a daze, not realising, he wrote on the page "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit".
From this, he investigates on the issue and this slowly turns into a story for his children. Copies of this story are circulating amongst his friends and one copy ends up on Susan Dagnall's desk, who works at George Allen and Unwin, editors. She insists he "polishes" it up. He does, and she presents it to Stanley Unwin. He reads the story to his 10 year old son Rayner. Very soon after, The Hobbit is published.

He retires in 1969, and soon after Edith dies in 1971, he returns to Oxford.
He joins Edith on September 2 1973. They share a grave and on it is written :

Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889-1971.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973

For more information I'd warmly suggest to visit the page made on him by the Tolkien Society :