"I never expected a money success," said Tolkien, pacing the room, as he does constantly when he speaks. "In fact, I never even thought of commercial publication when I wrote The Hobbit back in the Thirties.
"It all began when I was reading exam papers to earn a bit of extra money. That was agony. One of the tragedies of the underpaid professor is that he has to do menial jobs. He is expected to maintain a certain position and to send his children to good schools. Well, one day I came to a blank page in an exam book and I scribbled on it. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
The piece is a pleasant read about the greatest fantasy writer of all time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2015, @02:07PM
Well said! (Translation: I was going to post darn near the same thing.) Except I'd add: It would have behooved the submitter to work in that he has been dead for over forty years. That's one of those things that should be covered under, "you never know who's actually reading the article and how familiar they are with the subject."