J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien, an English author, was a successful fantasy writer, having sold over 600 million books, including "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit". He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis and significantly influenced Lewis's transition from atheism to Christianity. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, known as "Ron", was born in what is today South Africa. As a boy, he lost both his parents and suffered recurring bouts of depression. Upon his mothers death when Tolkien was 12, she entrusted the guardianship of her sons to her close friend Father Francis Xavier Morgan, with the expectation that they would be raised devout Catholics. Apparently, Fr. Morgan succeeded, as Tolkien once noted: "Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect 'history' to be anything but a 'long defeat' though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory." Possibly, Tolkien was a bit of a perfectionist and experienced its resultant pessimism.