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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) was the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings.

He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and Oxford University; he worked as reader in English language at Leeds from 1920 to 1925, as professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English Language and Literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was an eminently distinguished lexicographer and an expert in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. He was a strongly committed Roman Catholic, and admitted in letters that his faith had a profound effect on his writings. He belonged to a literary discussion group called the Inklings, through which he enjoyed a close friendship with C. S. Lewis.

In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes a number of posthumous books about the history of the imaginary world of Middle-earth, where his stories take place. The enduring popularity and influence of these works have established Tolkien as the father of the modern high fantasy genre. Tolkien's other published fiction includes adaptations of stories originally told to his children and not directly related to Middle-earth.