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Biography:

(1892–1973). His heroes are rather short, rather stout, and have very furry feet. English author J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantastic tales of battles between good and evil, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, made hobbit a household word.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on Jan. 3, 1892, and moved at age 4 with his family to England, where he was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He was a professor at Oxford from 1925 to 1959 and first gained recognition as a philologist, a person who studies the way language is used in literature. This work led him to help edit a version of the English fable Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that was published in 1925.

Tolkien not only studied fables; he created new ones of his own. He invented an imaginary land, Middle Earth, in meticulous detail: its language, its geography, and its exciting history. The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again, published in 1937, introduces readers to this special world as its inhabitants—elves, dwarfs, wizards, and the furry-footed hobbit Bilbo Baggins—fight and win against an evil dragon.

This story is continued in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954–55), consisting of The Fellowship of the RingThe Two Towers, and The Return of the King. These tales became immensely popular in the 1960s, especially among young adults. Another Tolkien book on Middle Earth, The Silmarillion, was published four years after his death in Bournemouth, England, on Sept. 2, 1973.

To learn more about this author check out The Tolkien Society web page, it  is a great resource for all things Tolkien! 

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C.S.Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Lewis wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. C. S. Lewis’s most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere ChristianityOut of the Silent PlanetThe Great DivorceThe Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics in The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

https://www.cslewis.com/us/about-cs-lewis/

George R. R. Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist and short story writer, screenwriter, and television producer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019).

In 2005, Lev Grossman of Time called Martin "the American Tolkien",and in 2011, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R._R._Martin

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks , a writer since high school, he wrote many stories within the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction, until one semester early in his college years he was given The Lord of the Rings to read. That moment changed Terry's life forever, because in Tolkien's great work he found all the elements needed to fully explore his writing combined in one genre.

He then wrote The Sword of Shannara, the seven year grand result retaining sanity while studying at Washington & Lee University and practicing law. It became the first work of fiction ever to appear on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, where it remained for over five months.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9629.Terry_Brooks

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