J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography
978-0-04-928037-3
J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography, written by Humphrey Carpenter, was first published in 1977. It is called the "authorized biography" of J. R. R. Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[1] It was first published in London by George Allen & Unwin, then in the United States by Houghton Mifflin Company. It has been reprinted many times since.
Book
Synopsis
Carpenter begins with a visit to Tolkien. He then describes Tolkien's early years, from South Africa to Birmingham and Oxford, and Tolkien's experience of fighting in the trenches of Northern France. He then explores how the legendarium came into being, from the Book of Lost Tales in 1917 onwards. The story of how Tolkien came to write The Hobbit, with the famous first line "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit", is set in the context of life at the University of Oxford, Tolkien's love of language, and his developing skill as a storyteller. Carpenter then looks at how the "new Hobbit", its successor The Lord of the Rings, took shape, and Tolkien's increasing fame in the 1960s. The narrative ends with an account of his final years.
Appendices provide a family tree, a chronology, and a list of published writings.
Publication history
The biography was first published by George Allen & Unwin in London in 1977. It was repeatedly reprinted that year, in 1978, in 1987 by both Unwin and by Houghton Mifflin in the US, and many times since. It has been translated into languages including French (C. Bourgeois, 1980), German (Klett-Cotta, 1979), Polish (Wydawnictwo ALFA-WERO, 1997), Russian (ĖKSMO-Press, 2002), and Spanish (Minotauro, 1990).
Reception
The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that even though the biography came out before most of the posthumous publications edited by Christopher Tolkien, "it has worn very well," telling of Tolkien's "sad and traumatic youth" and providing good coverage of his dealings with C. S. Lewis and his publishers.[2] August J. Fry reviewed the book for Christianity & Literature,[3] and Anthea Lawson reviewed it for The Observer in 2002.[4]
Charles E. Lloyd reviewed the book for the Sewanee Review in 1978, writing that Carpenter "reveals an affecting remarkable life without interposing between reader and subject personal predilections or self-advertisement." Lloyd states that the effect is to present Tolkien as a "very ordinary, even obscure, professor." He cites, too, Carpenter's mention that Tolkien "disapproved of biography as an aid to literary appreciation," agreeing that this may have been correct, with the two famous works telling what readers most need to know about Tolkien, but adding that it is helpful to know that Tolkien liked ordinary working men, like the batmen who served officers in the First World War trenches. Lloyd finds Carpenter's account of Tolkien's youth "gripping and astounding", and extremely good on his friendships and Catholicism.[5]
References
- ^ "Tolkien Bibliography: 1977 - Humphrey Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: a biography". The Tolkien Library. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
- ^ Shippey, Tom (29 November 2001). "Tom Shippey's top 10 books on JRR Tolkien". Retrieved 1 August 2020.
- ^ Fry, August J. (1977). "Book Review: J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography". Christianity & Literature. 27 (1). SAGE Publications: 32. doi:10.1177/014833317702700114. ISSN 0148-3331.
- ^ Lawson, Anthea (24 November 2002). "Review: Tolkien: A Biography". The Observer. Observer Review Pages, page 18.
- ^ Lloyd, Charles E. (1978). "Review: Tolkien and the Ordinary World". The Sewanee Review. 86 (1 (Winter 1978)): xi–xiv. JSTOR 27543325.
External links
- Editions of J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography available on the Internet Archive
- v
- t
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and songs
- Songs for the Philologists (1936)
- The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953)
- "A Walking Song" (1954)
- The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
- "Errantry"
- "Fastitocalon"
- "The Sea-Bell"
- "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late"
- The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
- Bilbo's Last Song (1974)
- The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009)
- The Fall of Arthur (2013)
- List of Tolkien's alliterative verse
- The Hobbit (1937)
- "Leaf by Niggle" (1947)
- The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945)
- Farmer Giles of Ham (1949)
- The Lord of the Rings:
- The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- The Two Towers (1954)
- The Return of the King (1955)
- Tree and Leaf (1964)
- The Tolkien Reader (1966)
- Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
fiction
- The Father Christmas Letters (1976)
- The Silmarillion (1977)
- Unfinished Tales (1980)
- Mr. Bliss (1982)
- The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996)
- Roverandom (1998)
- The Children of Húrin (2007)
- The History of The Hobbit (2007)
- The Story of Kullervo (2015)
- Beren and Lúthien (2017)
- The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
- The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)
- The Fall of Númenor (2022)
works
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925)
- "The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925)
- "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929)
- "Sigelwara Land" (1932–34)
- "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934)
- "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)
- "On Fairy-Stories" (1939)
- "On Translating Beowulf" (1940)
- Sir Orfeo (1944)
- Ancrene Wisse (1962)
- "English and Welsh" (1963)
- Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)
academic
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975)
- Exodus (1981)
- Finn and Hengest (1982)
- The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983)
- Beowulf and the Critics (2002)
- Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014)
- A Secret Vice (2016)
- Family
- Influences
- Artwork
- Languages constructed by Tolkien
- Impact of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings
- Inklings
- Mythlore
- Mythopoeic Society
- Tolkien's impact on fantasy
- Tolkien and the modernists
- Tolkien Estate
- Tolkien fandom
- The Tolkien Society
- Tolkien Studies
- Memorials
- Reception
- Tolkien research
- Works inspired by Tolkien
- Tolkien (biographical film)
- Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (album)
- Language and Human Nature
- The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary