Official Tolkien Society Press Release:
TOLKIEN FANS WORLDWIDE UNITE TO CELEBRATE AUTHOR’S BIRTHDAY
On 3rd January, Tolkien fans from across the world will join together to celebrate the Twelfty-First Birthday of the late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien CBE.
Tolkien aficionados in Brazil, USA, Canada, Spain, Australia, Japan, Italy, and the Netherlands will be uniting with events up and down the UK to hold birthday parties in honour of J.R.R. Tolkien. In the UK events are going on in many cities, including Brighton, London, Oxford, Bristol, Milton Keynes, and York. This is the 12th annual Birthday Toast and it will take place at 9pm on the 3rd January 2013.
This year, for Tolkien’s 121st birthday, the Tolkien Society is encouraging the public to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 book The Hobbit in light of the monumental success of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This year’s Birthday Toast will tie together the man, the books and the films – the Society will be encouraging people to talk about all of these on Facebook, Twitter and on its website,www.tolkiensociety.org.
The Tolkien Society tradition of celebrating Tolkien’s birthday stems from Tolkien’s best-selling epic The Lord of the Rings. In the book, after Bilbo vanished on his eleventy-first birthday, Frodo continued to celebrate Bilbo’s birthday every single year. The Tolkien Society was founded in 1969 dedicated to promoting the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien; J.R.R. Tolkien remains the Society’s Honorary President in perpetuo whilst his daughter, Priscilla, is the Society’s Honorary Vice President.
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa on 3rd January 1892 and died in Oxford on 2nd September 1973. He was the author of best-selling novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
