By James Aitchison

In the early 1930s, a middle-aged Oxford University professor sat down at his desk, reached for a blank sheet of paper, and scribbled the immortal words: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

The professor, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, later confessed that he had no idea why he wrote those words.  “I did nothing about it, for a long time …”

Which is good news for all those writers who hate deadlines! 

In fact, it was not until 21 September 1937 that The Hobbit was eventually published.  The Times hailed Tolkien as a new star in the constellation of children’s literature.  The newspaper declared, “a number of good things, never before united, have come together: a fund of humour, an understanding of children, and a happy fusion of the scholar’s with the poet’s grasp of

mythology.”

Tolkien brought the fantasy genre to new heights.  His books sold in their millions, and the movies they inspired have been globally acclaimed.

Yet, it defies belief that when Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings, only one copy of the manuscript ever existed.  He made no carbon copies.  Had that enormous pile of pages been lost, the world would have been a poorer place …

….

John Ronald Rueul Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, Africa.  His father, an English banker, died when his son was aged four.  Living in England, the young boy’s imagination and love of fantasy were fired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ripping yarns of pirates, and by the history of the English countryside itself; one day it would all be recycled!

He was just twelve when his mother died.  Father Francis Morgan, the family priest, stepped in and acted as a parent to Tolkien and his younger brother.  Tolkien loved language and eventually progressed to Oxford University.  When he turned 21, he married his fiancée Edith on a Wednesday and then it was off to the battlefields of Europe.  “Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute,” Tolkien wrote.  “Parting from my wife then … it was like a death.”

Following the end of the First World War, Tolkien secured a post as a lexicographer working on the Oxford English Dictionary; starting with the letter “W”, he traced the history and meanings of English words with Germanic origins. 

In 1925 he was appointed Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford’s Pembroke College.  By 1945 he was Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College where he remained until his retirement in 1959.  During this period Tolkien was a member of an Oxford literary discussion group named The Inklings; a fellow member was his good friend C. S. (“Jack”) Lewis, author of the Narnia stories and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

It was while Tolkien taught at Pembroke College that he began writing The Hobbit.  It was very much a family affair.  His children did the typing, using two index figures.  At one stage, his son Michael typed with only his left after his right had been injured at school.

When publisher Stanley Unwin, chairman of Allen and Unwin, first saw the incomplete manuscript he recognised its potential — especially after he paid his young son Rayner a shilling to read it and review it from a junior reader’s perspective.

The Hobbit was sold out by Christmas 1937.  American sales were encouraging too.  At last, the Tolkien family had a new stream of income to pay the bills.

Interestingly, shortly before World War II, a German publisher wanted to translate The Hobbit into German.  However, they first wanted to know if Tolkien was Aryan.  An outraged Tolkien replied that he regretted not having Jewish blood; he explained he wished he had some connection to such a gifted people.

….

With The Hobbit’s success, Allen and Unwin wanted more.  Tolkien sent them Farmer Giles of Ham, Mr. Bliss, and a collection of short stories that would eventually become The Silmarillion.

Stanley Unwin declined them all, saying the public wanted only more Hobbit stories.

Tolkien was perplexed.  How could Bilbo have more adventures when it clearly stated in The Hobbit that he ended his days without further adventure?  At first, Tolkien created a relative of Bilbo and called him Bingo.  Fortunately, he changed it to Frodo!

The Lord of the Rings consumed twelve years of writing time.  Edith was by his side, rekindling his flagging interest in the book.  “Jack” Lewis offered encouragement as well.

Unwin was eager to publish the work, but Tolkien had another publisher in mind: Collins (today’s HarperCollins).  Because he had signed a contract with Allen and Unwin, Tolkien insisted that Unwin accept two books, The Lord of the Rings and the previously rejected The Silmarillion.  When Unwin rejected the offer, Tolkien considered the contract broken and happily crossed to Collins.

Where he faced an unexpected stumbling block. 

William Collins wanted cuts made to The Lord of the Rings.  He was equally concerned by the growing length of The Silmarillion.  Months, then years, went by. 

By 1952 both books remained unpublished, and a despairing Tolkien returned to Allen and Unwin.  Rayner Unwin, now an executive at the house, bore no grudge against the author.  He leaped at the opportunity and asked Tolkien to send the manuscript at once.

“No, I can’t,” Tolkien said.  “I have only one copy of it.”

The two men met in London where the mammoth manuscript changed hands.  Rayner believed the book was too big to publish in one volume.  It had to be a trilogy, he argued; however, he acknowledged that the profit margin would not be great, and if the three volumes weren’t a commercial success, the company could lose a lot of money. 

Ultimately it was decided that the work had to proceed; it was too important a project.

The Fellowship of the Ring would appear in 1954, with a print run of 3,500 copies; The Two Towers and The Return of the King would follow.

Publishing history was made: the initial printing sold out in just over a month.  In the United States, Houghton Mifflin enjoyed similar success in 1955.  In both nations, critics were in awe.  The Observer in London called it “an extraordinary book dealing with a stupendous theme.”

London’s Sunday Telegraph considered it “among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century.”

….

Overnight, Tolkien had become a cult figure.  He was bemused by all the fame, fuss and adulation.  “I am just another teacher,” he told his Oxford colleagues.  With true humility, he was always grateful for his readers’ loyalty and support.

Edith died in 1971 and a grief-stricken Tolkien took up residence in rooms at Merton College.  When he died in 1973, aged 81, his son Christopher would be left to edit and publish The Silmarillion.

The Daily Telegraph obituary read: “Bilbo found a scrap of black twist and tied it round his arm.  The little hobbit wept bitterly.  Somewhere in the world of fantasy that Prof. J. R. R. Tolkien created, this is happening at the news of his death.  The kingdoms that he created will not pass away …”