Long before the successful movies, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had a global popularity. This is the story of an intensely private, brilliant scholar whose imagination was in touch with our basic hunger for stories. He struggled to find a publisher, and his whole life had been a struggle - orphaned, poor, and forbidden from communicating with the woman he loved.

After his brilliance was eventually recognized at Oxford, he was then traumatized by his service in the Battle of the Somme. Behind the depths and richness of The Lord of the Rings is over fifty years of creation of the languages, history, peoples and geography of Middle-earth, with a consistent mythology and body of legends inspired by a formidable knowledge of early northern European history and culture. Tolkien became a legend by making a legend that has gripped the imagination of people throughout the world.