Who is the author of The Lord of the Rings?

J. R. R. Tolkien was the author of The Lord of the Rings, the epic high-fantasy work set in Middle-earth. His initials stand for John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

Tolkien was an English writer, philologist, and university professor. The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel to his 1937 book The Hobbit, but it grew into a much larger and darker story about the One Ring, Sauron, and the fate of Middle-earth. Tolkien worked on the book for more than a decade, developing its languages, histories, genealogies, and mythology alongside the main narrative.

Although commonly called a trilogy, Tolkien conceived The Lord of the Rings as one novel divided into six internal books. His publisher released it in three volumes for practical and financial reasons: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, The Two Towers in 1954, and The Return of the King in 1955.

J. K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, and C. S. Lewis are also major authors, but none wrote The Lord of the Rings. Lewis was Tolkien’s friend and fellow member of the literary discussion group known as the Inklings.