Many call him the Master of Fantasy. Throughout his career he wrote hundreds of poems and stories. JRR Tolkien was a pioneer of fantasy literature in the mid-1900s and continues to be one of the most famous writers to this day. As a young boy, Tolkien loved learning words and languages. As he grew up, he came to love not only learning words, but also writing them. Before Tolkien became famous as a writer, he helped work on the New English Dictionary where he researched the history and origins of words beginning with the letter W. He also translated many stories from Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and other languages. But Tolkien's most famous work is as an author. His best-known works are The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings. Despite his great success, some critics believe that there is something seriously wrong with Tolkien and his work. These people claim he's sexist. Indeed, there is a lack of female characters in many of his stories and the few that do exist play no major roles. They also suggest that many female characters play the role of a stereotypical housewife, staying at home to cook and clean while the men go off to war. Candice Fredrick and Sam McBride, the authors of Women Among the Inklings: Gender, argue that men operate within an overtly patriarchal system. Men are doers, workers, thinkers and leaders. The women are housewives, nurses and distant loves. (109) They argue that this may be because Tolkien had very few female influences in his life. His mother died when he was a young boy, he had only one wife with whom he barely interacted later in life, and the vast majority of his colleagues were male academics . Middle of paper ......ications, 1992. Print.Conrad-O'Briain, Helen. “Lord of the Rings Preview.” Epics for students. Ed. Elisabeth Bellalouna. Flight. 2. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Gale Library Resources. Internet. March 22, 2010. Enright, Nancy. “Tolkien’s Women and the Definition of Power.” Renaissance: Essays on Values ​​in Literature 59.2 (2007): 93+. Gale Literary Resources. Internet. March 22, 2010. Fredrick, Candice and Sam McBride. Women among the Inklings: Gender, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and Charles Williams. Westport (Connecticut): Greenwood, 2001. Print. Hatcher, Melissa McCrory. “Finding the role of women in The Lord of the Rings.” Mythlore 25.3-4 (2007): 43+. Gale Literary Resources. Internet. March 22, 2010. Tolkien, JRR The Fellowship of the Ring. New York: Ballentine, 2003. Print. Tolkien, JRR The Return of the King. New York: Ballantine, 1983. Print.