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Myth Maker:  J.R.R. Tolkien	Anne E. Neimark
A biography that i found in the juvenile section at the local library, Myth Maker follows Tolkien from toddlerhood to death and through the many difficult periods of his life.  It's written for 8-12 year olds, but i think it seems more like a short biography for adults as it may be a bit above them, even boring.  It's still an interesting read and accurately portrays with few details Tolkien's journey to write his greatest works and the unexpected following they created.
"Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart...good beyond hope." ~ C.S. Lewis "It is written in my life-blood, such as that is, thick or thin; and I can no other." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien i just had to mention...  Edith Tolkien's tombstone bears the name of Luthién under her name, and Tolkien's the name Beren:  he wrote the love story for her before their marriage.	Unexpected discoveries...  Tolkien was not immune to writer's block, and some of his characters were added into LotR at his children's request.  Tom Bombadil is named after his daughter's doll.  Michael asked for talking trees, thus Ents (who share the "hrum hoom" mannerisms of fellow Inkling C.S. Lewis).  Shelob is a tarantula who bit Tolkien when he was a toddler, and Maggot a "black ogre" who chased him for stealing mushrooms (he climbed a tree to escape the farmer's wrath).  The names of several of the Hobbit's dwarves and places in M.E. are taken from literature that he loved and taught about for decades.
It took Tolkien ten and a half years to complete his first draft of the Lord of the Rings, but he continued refining it for two more years.  When he turned it into the publisher his usual editor (the one who had asked him to write a sequel to the Hobbit) was away on business, and his replacement returned the book before he could return, rejected.  Tolkien tried other publishers, but they all turned him down.  When his editor came back and discovered what had happened, it took him weeks to get Tolkien to resubmit it.  The publishing company's owners thought that they would take a loss of £1,000 ($2,800) to publish it, so they chose to published it in three seperate volumes, a year apart for each, so the costs would be defrayed. The Fellowship of the Ring was published in 1954 to mixed reviews but sales were better than had been predicted.  By the time Return of the King was published there was such a clamor for the final part that they released it ahead of time.  It was flying off the shelves along with FotR and the Two Towers and before long the first edition was sold out, for though most critics were still skeptical at best, the general population was enthralled.  Critics generally considered it a bad children's book, but the public obviously disagreed. The books were doing particularly well in American colleges by the 1960s, so by the time Christopher R. Tolkien finished compiling his father's life's work--The Silmarillion--not only was Lord of the Rings perpetually sold out, back ordered, and impossible to keep in stock, but The Sil (which was believed to be even worse) began going just as fast if not faster. All this from a "child's story" that wouldn't sell.  What critics thought was boring and dull instead draws the reader into a new world, and so became one of the biggest phenomenons in the twentieth century (in fact, it is hailed by some as the greatest book of the century).  Even more, Fellowship of the Ring has become the ninth highest grossing movie (of all time) in the United States, and did even better overseas (it's #1 in New Zealand, the country it was filmed in).  There are very few books or movies that have gone quite so far, and i am a fan of most of them, yet the success of the Lord of the Rings--a book i had barely heard of a year ago--is still astonishing to most.  Personally... i think it's a God-thing.