J.R.R. Tolkien (1892.1973) was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien and friend C.S. Lewis shared the belief that their fantastical storytelling was a way to smuggle Christian truth past the biases of secularized readers. His books have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.