The fascinating true story of J.R.R. Tolkien, the beloved author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, is told for young people in this new Vision Book. Few, if any, novels in Western literature have received more acclaim than these fantasy novels by Tolkien, yet not many readers know much about the inspiring life of their author.  Even fewer know that both novels, epic in their scope and splendor, are infused with Tolkien’s devoutly Catholic worldview. 

At a glance, Tolkien’s life was as ordinary as any typical Englishmen of the early 20th century. He grew up in the Midland region, established a career as an Oxford professor, and raised four children with his wife. Underneath the surface of this life path, though, the innate genius that eventually swept the heart of the literary world found fertile soil very early, when his imagination and his love for both England and language first began to form.

As in his novels, the mountains and valleys of his life path took on a scope and splendor that were themselves the stuff of epics --great loves and shattering losses, terrible struggles and powerful temptations, as well as the great war that would change everything.

This powerful true story of J.R.R. Tolkien’s life before the entrance of a little hobbit named Bilbo is fascinating and often moving to all who seek to follow Our Lord faithfully, even when no joy or meaning shimmers in the distance.