This engaging lecture, by well-known Tolkien scholar and writer Dr. Bradford Lee Eden (Interim Dean of Meriam Library), will talk about the life and influences on J.R.R. Tolkien, dubbed "Author of the 20th Century" by numerous critics. Early influences, his career as a don at Oxford University and his influence on the Catholic conversion of his colleague C.S. Lewis (often called the most influential Christian apologist of the 20th century) will be mentioned, along with how his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (which were later developments of his larger mythology of Middle-earth) came to influence 1960s pop culture and hence become the most purchased books of the 20th century after the Bible. Mention of the recent movies and the "Rings of Power" series will be included, along with the lecturer's own scholarship regarding music in Tolkien's works.