Map of Oxford

Tolkien the Don

When John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wasn't creating Middle Earth or imbibing with CS Lewis and the other Inklings, he held down a day job as an Oxford don. He had graduated Oxford's Exeter College in 1915 with first-class honours and, after World War I, had stints working on the letter "W' at the Oxford English Discitonary and serving as a reader at the University of Leeds. Tolkien returned to Oxford as a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, where he wrote The Hobbit and the first two books in The Lord of the Rings. He moved to Merton College as Professor of English Language and Literature in 1945, completing the Return of the King in 1948 and retiring in 1959.