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Research Help Appointments are one-on-one sessions with a librarian.
Scholars and fantasy fans often look to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as the starting point of the fantasy genre, but fantasy was being written long before the 1950s. Early fantasy writers include Madame d'Aulnoy, Gertrude Barrows Bennett (pen name 'Francis Stevens'), George MacDonald, and Samuel Rutherford Crockett.
The myths and faerie-tales that have inspired much modern fantasy literature date back to ancient times. From the epic poem Beowulf, as well as Scandinavian, Celtic, and Greek mythology, modern fantasy literature has come a long way since those tales were first told, and Tolkien is just the beginning. Many great modern fantasy authors have emerged since Tolkien's time, and lots of them just within the last few decades, including: Susanna Clarke, Maya Deane, Joe Abercorombie, NK Jemisin, Marlon James, VE Schwab, Juno Dawson, A.R. Capetta, Shelley Parker-Chan, and Neon Yang.
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