John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (pronounced /ˈtɒlkiːn/) (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959.He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings.

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