J.R.R. Tolkien: The Father of Modern Fantasy by Don Marshall

Don Marshall, the online master of Tolkien trivia, has finally written a book. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Father of Modern Fantasy is a handy collection of biographical vignettes, tying incidents from the author’s life to characters and scenes from The Hobbit and “Lord of the Rings.” The loss of Tolkien’s parents found its way into the orphanhood of Frodo Baggins, the Misty Mountains were taken from Tolkien’s teenage vacation in the Swiss Alps, and the terrible wars in Middle-Earth from his frontline experiences in World War I. Avid readers of the Rings already know this: Tolkien didn’t invent the 15-plus languages he used in his stories to flesh out his stories. Instead, he wrote the stories around those languages. Tolkien began w

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