Tolkien: A Biography

by Michael White

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This biography recounts Tolkien's early childhood in South Africa followed by his family's return to England after his banker father's death. The Tolkiens settled in the highly industrialized city of Birmingham in the 1890s which was still surrounded by breathtaking countryside. Thus the industrialized heart of the Empire and the sylvan idyll of the woods and hills became important extremes for much of Tolkien's thinking and writing, leading up to that most inspired moment when, as an Oxford show more don, Tolkien was marking exam papers and noticed his student had left a blank page in the answer book. Suddenly he wrote: In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. In typical Tolkien fashion, he was intrigued by this and decided to find out more about hobbits. The rest is history. show less

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Para comemorar os 125 anos de nascimento de Tolkien, a DarkSide® Books publica esta edição comemorativa de J.R.R. TOLKIEN - O SENHOR DA FANTASIA, com nova capa e um mapa pôster exclusivo da Terra Média.A biografia reconta a vida do autor de clássicos como a trilogia O Senhor dos Anéis e O Hobbit, e considerado um dos maiores autores de fantasia de todos os tempos, que em breve vai ganhar uma adaptação para o cinema.A obra de Michael White acompanha a vida e a trajetória do escritor, começando por sua infância na África do Sul, seguida do retorno da família para a Inglaterra, onde os Tolkien estabeleceram-se em Birmingham, cidade que passava por uma rápida industrialização nos anos 1890, mas ainda era cercada por uma show more paisagem de tirar o fôlego. Este cenário que reunia e mesclava o coração industrial do Império britânico próximo a bosques e montanhas idílicas e selvagens foi determinante para as ideias e a escrita de Tolkien.Já é clássico o momento inspirador quando era professor em Oxford e um dia, corrigindo exames, ao se deparar com uma página em branco que um aluno havia deixado no caderno de exercícios, Tolkien escreve de repente: “Em uma toca no chão vivia um Hobbit”. Bem à sua maneira, ele fica intrigado com aquilo e decide descobrir mais a respeito dos hobbits.Escrito para os seus filhos, O Hobbit tornou-se um sucesso imediato quando foi publicado em 1937. Vendeu milhões de exemplares mundo afora desde então e estabeleceu-se como “um dos livros mais influentes de nossa geração”.Influência e paixão que só aumentaram com as adaptações para o cinema da trilogia de O Senhor dos Anéis, por Peter Jackson, e que voltam a atrair a atenção de todos novamente com o começo da nova trilogia de O Hobbit. show less
An insightful biography on the harsh childhood, the Catholicism, and the publication difficulties of J.R.R. Tolkien.
El célebre biógrafo Michael White vuelve la vista sobre la poco conocida vida de uno de los escritores más famosos del mundo. White describe, detalladamente, los años de la infancia de Tolkien en Sudáfrica y west Midland, la trágica y temprana muerte de sus padres, el inicio de su relación con Edith Brett, sus años como universitario en Oxford, su amistad con C.S. Lewis y la fundación del grupo The Inklings, así como todos los aspectos de la vida que forjaron a este gran escritor.

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35 Works 4,971 Members
Michael White is a British writer. He was born in 1959 and studied at King's College London. He has been a science editor of British GQ and a columnist for the Sunday Express in London. From 1984 to 1991, he was a science lecturer at d'Overbroeck's College in Oxford before becoming a full-time writer, of both fiction and non-fiction. Among his show more non-fiction works are: Coffee with Newton, Galileo Antichrist: A Biography, The Fruits of War, Tolkien: A Biography, Leonardo: The First Scientist, and Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. White also collaborated with John Gribbin on 'A Life in Science' Series, featuring biographies of Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. His novels include: The Art of Murder, The Borgia Ring, The Medici Secret, and Equinox. He has also written numerous novels under pseudonyms, including; the E-Force trilogy as Sam Fisher, and The Titanic Enigma, as Tom west. Most recently, White co-wrote the international bestseller Private down Under, with James Patterson. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title*
Tolkien: Uma Biografia
Original title
Critical Lives: J. R. R. Tolkien
Alternate titles
Tolkien: a biography
Original publication date
2001
People/Characters
J. R. R. Tolkien; W. H. Auden; Father Francis Xavier Morgan; C. S. Lewis; Christopher Tolkien; Edith Tolkien (show all 9); Mabel Tolkien; Rayner Unwin; Stanley Unwin
Important places
Birmingham, England, UK; King Edward's School, Birmingham, England, UK; University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK; Northmoor Road, Oxfordshire, England, UK; Exeter College, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK; University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Dedication
For Jennifer and Peter
First words
Introduction
On the scale of things I came quite late to Tolkien's work.
Last words*
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Yet, it is a testament to the man's genius that with a mere thousand pages, his writing continues to captivate the minds of millions and to offer his readers a [sic!] entirely believable and absorbing alternative reality unmatched in the history of literature.
Original language*
English
Canonical DDC/MDS
928.2
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.

Classifications

Genres
Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
DDC/MDS
928.2History & geographyBiographies, Genealogy, HealdryWriters, Authors / Poets / DramatistsWriters in English
LCC
PR6039 .O32 .Z895Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1900-1960
BISAC

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13 — Danish, Dutch, English, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish, Turkish
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
26
UPCs
1
ASINs
1