Tolkien’s first job after the war was researching word origins for the Oxford English Dictionary. He soon found a position as Reader of English language at the University of Leeds in 1920, and in 1924, the university appointed him Professor. In 1925, he returned to Oxford University as Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the remarkably young age of 33. Tolkien was an excellent teacher, and his dramatic lectures on Beowulf were legendary. His academic writing includes a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and his landmark essays “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” and “On Fairy-Stories.” In 1945, he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, and he continued in that position until his retirement.
Tolkien and his wife, Edith, had four children: sons John, Michael, and Christopher and daughter Priscilla, born between 1917 and 1929. The family lived quietly in Oxford while Tolkien pursued his academic studies and personal writing. John eventually entered the priesthood. Michael and Christopher both served in World War II, later becoming educators, and Priscilla was a social worker. Christopher, who followed in his father’s footsteps as a university lecturer, also oversees Tolkien’s literary estate and has edited many volumes of his father’s notes.
Tolkien also enjoyed an active social life with his colleagues at the university. He became a founding member of the all-male club known as the Inklings, who met frequently to talk, drink beer at the local taverns, and discuss writing. Members included many authors, most famously C.S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. For many years, they convened at least once a week to read both their favorite literature and their own works in progress. This group became the first critical audience for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
