JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.3.3/underscore-min.js"></script>
<script id='tmpl-books' type='text/template'>
  <ul>
    <% for (var i = 0; i < books.length; i++) { %>
      <% var book = books[i]; %>
      <li>
          <em><%= book.title %></em> by <%= book.author %>
      </li>
    <% } %>
  </ul>
</script>

  <div id="target"></div>

JavaScript

var JSONSTRING, compiledTmpl, data, tmplMarkup;

JSONSTRING = " [\n{\n  \"title\":\"Myst: The Book of Atrus\",\n  \"author\":\"Rand Miller\"\n},\n{\n  \"title\":\"The Hobbit\",\n  \"author\":\"J.R.R. Tolkien\"\n},\n{\n  \"title\":\"Stardust\",\n  \"author\":\"Neil Gaiman\"\n}\n] ";

data = JSON.parse(JSONSTRING);

tmplMarkup = $("#tmpl-books").html();

compiledTmpl = _.template(tmplMarkup, {
  books: data
});

$("#target").html(compiledTmpl);