03/25/2026
Happy Tolkien Reading Day dear Mellyn! How are you celebrating today?
We will be at the Lansing Public Library, sharing our favourite passages.
Known and beloved by millions of fans, the "father of modern fantasy literature" (and WWI veteran) will be added to the Walk of Honor at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in 2026.
This year, a member of the Tolkien Society purchased a commemorative brick honoring author J.R.R. Tolkien. Today, March 25, is , we want to highlight how his service to his country informed and influenced his writing.
"John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) volunteered as a junior officer in the British Army in 1915 and served in the Battle of the Somme in June–October 1916. There, he was signals officer in charge of all communications for the 11th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Invalided back to Britain with trench fever, he spent 1917–18 guarding the English coast, training soldiers and also beginning to write his now-famous Middle-earth mythology.
His war experience of fear and tragedy and of courage and heroism helped to shape what he wrote, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – two of the most popular and influential books of our times.” - John Garth
Special thanks to our friends at Tolkien Society of Kansas City.
Leave a lasting memory by honoring an individual with a brick on the Walk of Honor. Find out more here: https://theworldwar.org/support/commemorative-giving
Image: J. R. R. Tolkien (aged 24) in army uniform, photograph taken in 1916. Public Domain.
