John Howe was born in 1957 in Vancouver, Canada. After finishing High School, he moved to France in 1976, where he attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg, gaining a Diploma in Illustration. Aside from illustrating jackets for numerous Tolkien and other fantasy works he has also illustrated many children’s books. He lives in Switzerland with his wife and their ten-year-old son.
Alan Lee was invited to illustrate the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, which led to further Tolkien editions, including The Hobbit and the three ‘Great Tales’: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin. He worked as Conceptual Designer and Set Decorator on both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, receiving the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on The Return of the King.
