John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R. R. Tolkien) was born in South Africa on January 3, 1892. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon language at the University of Oxford and Oxford. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular. Although many other authors had published fantasy works before Tolkien, the huge success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a resurgence in popularity and the shaping of the modern fantasy genre. This has led to Tolkien being popularly referred to as the “father” of modern fantasy literature.
Middle-earth
1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
1954–1955 The Lord of the Rings
1954 The Fellowship of the Ring: being the first volume of The Lord of the Rings
1954 The Two Towers: being the second volume of The Lord of the Rings
1955 The Return of the King: being the third volume of The Lord of the Rings
Poetry books
1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
1967 The Road Goes Ever On, with Donald Swann, a song-cycle
Posthumous
1974 Bilbo’s Last Song
1975 Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (edited version) published in A Tolkien Compass by Jared Lobdell. Written by Tolkien for use by translators of The Lord of the Rings, a full version, re-titled “Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings,” was published in 2005 in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scul
1977 The Silmarillion edited by Christopher Tolkien with the assistance of Guy Gavriel Kay.
1980 Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth edited by Christopher Tolkien
1983–1996 The History of Middle-earth compiled and edited by Christopher Tolkien (a combined index of the series was published in 2002):
The Book of Lost Tales 1 (1983)
The Book of Lost Tales 2 (1984)
The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
The Return of the Shadow (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 1) (1988)
The Treason of Isengard (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 2) (1989)
The War of the Ring (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 3) (1990)
Sauron Defeated (The History of The Lord of the Rings vol. 4, including The Notion Club Papers) (1992)
Morgoth’s Ring (The Later Silmarillion vol. 1) (1993)
The War of the Jewels (The Later Silmarillion vol. 2) (1994)
The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
2005 Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (full version) published in The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull Re-titled to “Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings” in this book. Written by Tolkien for use by translators of The Lord of the Rings; an edited version was Lobdell 1975 (above).
2007 The Children of Húrin edited by Christopher Tolkien
2007 The History of The Hobbit by John D. Rateliff – contains substantial text fragments
2017 Beren and Lúthien edited by Christopher Tolkien
2018 The Fall of Gondolin edited by Christopher Tolkien
2021 The Nature of Middle-earth edited by Carl F. Hostetter
2022 The Fall of Númenor edited by Brian Sibley
Short works
1945 “Leaf by Niggle” (short story), published in The Dublin Review
1945 The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (poem), published in The Welsh Review
1949 Farmer Giles of Ham (medieval fable)
1953 The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son (a play written in alliterative verse), published with the accompanying essays Beorhtnoth’s Death and Ofermod, in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, volume 6.
1964 Tree and Leaf (On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle in book form)
1966 The Tolkien Reader (The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son, On Fairy-Stories, Leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil)
1967 Smith of Wootton Major (short story), published as an illustrated chapbook
Full list of his publications here.
Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring Author: J.R.R. Tolkien Series: Book #1 of The Lord of the Rings 432 pages, Kindle Edition First published July 29, 1954 Buy on…