Yes, go read a biography on Tolkien. I read multiple biographies as part of a school report many, many years ago. It's even alluded to in the original prologue

Yes, go read a biography on Tolkien. I read multiple biographies as part of a school report many, many years ago. It's even alluded to in the original prologue to LotR, although not made clear enough for a general audience. IIRC he talks about how he generated fake historical accounts--timelines, genealogical trees, descriptions of wars, etc.--for his "hobby" (not as his hobby, but for his hobby, that hobby being what is now called "conlanging", specifically art-conlangs). He showed these histories (what would become The Silmarillion and other works) to friends to see if they thought anyone would be interested in reading them. He was emphatically told NO, and so he picked a story and told that as a story instead. The world of the Lord of the Rings exists solely for the purpose of providing an explanation for the evolution of his made up elvish languages, which was the real interest of this professor of linguistics. That it was published at all was an accident of the fact that people liked the bedtime story he wrote for his son (The Hobbit) which drew inspiration from his linguistically-driven worldbuilding.