March 28, 2001
Tolkien: Wizard
of Words
Michael Coren
Let's be quite honest here. This is a blatant attempt to plug
my new book, J.R.R. Tolkien: The Man Who Created The Lord of the Rings. Lavishly
illustrated and not badly written, it's a steal at $27.95 from Stoddart, the best
publishers in the country. Which is not to say you should steal a copy, because I have
four children to feed and, frankly, I need the money.
Okay, shameless self-promotion completed. The point is, however, that Tolkien and his
books are quite remarkable. So much so that The Lord of the Rings has been turned into
three major movies, number one to be released this year. The very first day a brief video
clip of the movie was placed on the official Web site, there were more than 1.7 million
downloads. That was twice the number of the previous record, held by Star Wars: The
Phantom Menace.
Last year various polls were taken to find the most popular writer of the century, and then of all time. Much to the frustration of the chattering classes, the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit won every one.