Great Authors of the 20th Century

During the 20th Century new authors began writing and providing a vast range of literature, a lot of which remain as classics and are still read to this day. In this history essay I will be discussing some of these great authors: C.S Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, and Isaac Asimov.

C.S Lewis 

Clive Staples Lewis(nicknamed Jack), was born on November 29th, 1898, in Bedford Ireland. He was very close to his older brother Warren growing up, and they spent much time together. Unfortunately his mother passed away when he was only ten years of age. Lewis received a pretty good education. He went to boarding school and was tutored.

Like many young men during his time, Lewis became a soldier and fought in World War 1. After the war he graduated from Oxford university, and got a job at Oxford and Cambridge. Lewis was a novelist, poet, literary critic, essayist, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. 

Lewis’s most famous work of writing, that is still widely read to this day are the Chronicles of Narnia, but that was not the only thing he wrote, he also wrote a science fiction series called the Space Trilogy. He not only wrote fiction he also wrote many books of Christian apologies, the most well known of his books in this category are The Screwtape Letters(which I have read).

Lewis later in his life began experiencing poor health, including some heart trouble, which forced him to resign from his job. He passed away on November 23rd, 1963, the same day as the assination of John F. Kennedy.

J.R.R Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was born on January 3rd, 1892, in South Africa. Both of Tolkein’s parents passed away when he was pretty young, leaving him and his siblings orphaned. During World War 1, he served as a lieutenant, but was eventually released from service thanks to an illness.

Tolkien worked as a university professor in Oxford, but he also worked as a writer and poet. His most famous written work is his first story, The Hobbit, and his later trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy were later adapted into major movies. 

Tolkein passed away on September 2nd, 1973, only a year after receiving a major award: The Commander of the Order of the British Empire award, which he received from Queen Elizabeth. After his death his son took his father’s notes to finish some of his father’s stories that were unfinished. They were later published.

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov, born on January 2nd 1920, in Petrovichi Russia. But in 1923 he and his family moved to America. Asimov is probably the most prolific author out of all the authors that I wrote about in this essay, just because of the awards he received and how many books he wrote.

Asimov wrote a total of five-hundred books and ninety-thousand essays, very impressive for a lifetime. He was a very broad author, with his books being published in nine of the major ten Dewey Decimal categories.

Throughout his life he received many awards and accolades until his death in 1992, and is even commemorated by a literary award in his honor. Two of the most famous of Asimov’s literary works are The Robot Series, and The Foundation Series.

Conclusion

These three authors are only a few of the great authors of the 20th century, some of the other notable authors during the 20th include, Agatha Christie, George Orwell, and Ernest Hemingway, all of which are still read to this day.