Top JRR Tolkien statistics
- JRR Tolkien’s books have sold more than 150 million copies
- Claims that new figures after 15 years with no update make him amongst the top-selling authors of all time are unproven – these claims state that over 600 million copies have been sold
- NewsCorp bought Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for $349 million. This added the US rights to the UK rights that NewsCorp already owned
- The Lord of the Rings was voted book of the 20th century by Waterstones customers in the UK
- In a recent survey of 76,000 Americans, Lord of the Rings was voted America’s 5th favorite book
- In the same survey Tolkien was voted as America’s 9th favorite author
- Movies based on Tolkien’s books have made over $5.5 billion at the box office
The works of JRR Tolkien
- JRR Tolkien technically only published two novels in his lifetime – The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
- He viewed The Lord of The Rings as a single piece of work but his publishers broke it down into a trilogy
- Most people would say that JRR Tolkien published 4 novels in his lifetime
- He also released two books of poetry in his lifetime – The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and The Road Goes Ever On.
Published during his lifetime
| Published | Title |
| 1954 | The Fellowship of the Ring |
| 1954 | The Two Towers |
| 1955 | The Return of the King |
Published after death
| Published | Title |
| 1974 | Bilbo’s Last Song |
| 1975 | Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings |
| 1977 | The Silmarillion |
| 1980 | Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth |
| 2002 | The History of Middle-earth |
| 2005 | Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings |
| 2007 | The Children of Húrin |
| 2007 | The History of The Hobbit |
| 2017 | Beren and Lúthien |
| 2018 | The Fall of Gondolin |
| 2021 | The Nature of Middle-earth |
| 2022 | The Fall of Númenor |
Facts about JRR Tolkien’s life
- Tolkien’s full name is John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
- Tolkien was an Oxford professor, academic and philologist (historical linguist)
- Tolkien fully developed 2 languages – Quenya and Sindarin – to the point that they were usable
- He created up to 15 dialects of Elvish languages to at least some extent
- Estimates suggest that he created around 20 languages in total
- Tolkien and CS Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia) were close friends but drifted apart in the late 40s
- JRR Tolkien was a Roman Catholic
- Tolkien’s wife was called Edith Tolkien (née Bratt)
- She was born in 1889 and died in 1971, two years before Tolkien
- She is known to have inspired at least two of Tolkien’s characters – Arwen Undómiel and Lúthien Tinúviel
- JRR Tolkien was born in modern day South Africa in 1892
- He died in England in 1973 at the age of 81