JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.5.1/underscore-min.js"></script>
<script id="tmpl-books" type="text/template">
    <% _.each(items, function(item) { %>
        <ul>
            <li>Title: <%= item.title %></li>
            <li>Author: <%= item.author %></li>
        </ul>
            <% }); %>
    </script>
<div id="rendered"></div>

JavaScript

console.log("hi");
var list = { items: 
                [
                    {
                        "title": "Myst: The Book of Atrus",
                        "author": "Rand Miller"
                    },
                    {
                        "title": "The Hobbit",
                        "author": "J.R.R. Tolkien"
                    },
                    {
                        "title": "Stardust",
                        "author": "Neil Gaiman"
                    }
                ]
};

// _.templateSettings = {  interpolate: /\{\{(.+?)\}\}/g };

var tmplMarkup = $('#tmpl-books').html();
var compiledTmpl = _.template(tmplMarkup, list);
$('#rendered').append(compiledTmpl);