J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

One day while grading papers, J.R.R. Tolkien inexplicably wrote "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" in the margin - thereby setting out on the path that would bring him fame, fortune, and the devotion of millions. A veteran of the Battle of the Somme, he was a close friend of C. S. Lewis and an editor of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY before becoming the Merton Professor of English at Oxford.