J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien had 49+ works published from the begining of his writing career to present time. One of his four children, Christopher Tolkien, still puts together his father's notes, edits them, and has them published. His latest publication was "The Fall of Arthur". It was published in May of 2013. Something that may have been an inspiration for many occurences in "The Lord of the Rings" series, would be his experiences in war. How it would have been during this war and how frightening the enemy may have looked with their real and make-shift gas masks. One big influence on this could be how elephants were used during this war. In the series, Tolkien speaks of these gigantic elephant-like creatures, he calls them Mûmakil, also known as oliphaunts. Much like the elephants used during this war, they were normally used as labor animals, but were turned into beasts of war in WW1. 

        Some of Tolkien's most famous works are "The Lord of the Rings" series, "The Hobbit", "The Simarillion", "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics". He recieved  the New York Herald Tribune Children’s Spring Book Festival award for "The Hobbit" in 1938, the International Fantasy Award, for The Lord of the Rings in 1957, the Locus Award for best fantasy novel for The Silmarillion in 1978.