JRR TolkienJ.RR Tolkien (1892-1973) gained a reputation during the 1960s and 1970s as a cult figure among young people disillusioned by war and the technological age. Its continued popularity is a testament to its ability to evoke the oppressive realities of modern life while drawing audiences into a fantasy world. John Ronald Reuel was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where his father, Arthur, had taken a course of study. position at the Bank of Africa. In 1895 Tolkien's mother, Mabel Suffield, returned to England with her children, because Tolkien's health was affected by the climate. Arthur Tolkien hoped to return to England soon, but contracted rheumatic fever the following autumn and died in early 1896. After a few months of living with her parents, Mabel Tolkien rented a cottage on the outskirts of Birmingham, and from then until upon his death in 1904 she and her two children were living in rented houses on the outskirts of the city. After her death, Mabel Tolkien's parish priest, Father Francis Morgan, took responsibility for her children's upbringing and education. Tolkien's only means of escaping lower-middle-class commercial life was to win an academic scholarship, which, with some difficulty, he did in 1910, gaining entry to Exeter College, Oxford. In 1908 Tolkien fell in love with Edith Bratt, an orphan like him. In 1910 Father Morgan forbade him to communicate with her until he came of age, which Tolkien obeyed. At Oxford he began studying classics but soon concentrated on English language and literature, achieving top marks in his final examination in 1915. He visited Edith Bratt five days after her twenty-first birthday, and they were formally engaged in 1914 when, at Tol. ..... in the center of the paper......the hot desert, towards England, rolling grassy hills, seemed to open his mind. One of the main reasons he wrote was to entertain his children. He told them his world. And only a small majority of his stories were published (Kroeber 521). JRR Tolkien (1892-1973) earned a reputation during the 1960s and 1970s as a cult figure among young people disillusioned with war and the technological age. Its continued popularity highlights its ability to evoke the oppressive realities of modern life while drawing audiences into a fantasy world. Works Cited Byers, Paula K. Ed. “JRR Tolkien”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gake Research, 1998. 259-260Grotta, Daniel. JRR Tolkien: Architect of Middle-earth. Philadelphia: Courage Books, 1992. 123-135.Kroeber, Karl. “JRR Tolkien”. British writers. Ed. George Stade, New York: Gale Research, 1980. 519-521