The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Houghton Mifflin, 1981 - Biography & Autobiography - 463 pages

This collection will entertain all who appreciate the art of masterful letter writing. The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien sheds much light on Tolkien's creative genius and grand design for the creation of a whole new world: Middle-earth. Featuring a radically expanded index, this volume provides a valuable research tool for all fans wishing to trace the evolution of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

About the author

A writer of fantasies, Tolkien, a professor of language and literature at Oxford University, was always intrigued by early English and the imaginative use of language. In his greatest story, the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954--56), Tolkien invented a language with vocabulary, grammar, syntax, even poetry of its own. Though readers have created various possible allegorical interpretations, Tolkien has said: "It is not about anything but itself. (Certainly it has no allegorical intentions, general, particular or topical, moral, religious or political.)" In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), Tolkien tells the story of the "master of wood, water, and hill," a jolly teller of tales and singer of songs, one of the multitude of characters in his romance, saga, epic, or fairy tales about his country of the Hobbits. Tolkien was also a formidable medieval scholar, as evidenced by his work, Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics (1936) and his edition of Anciene Wisse: English Text of the Anciene Riwle. Among his works published posthumously, are The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún and The Fall of Arthur, which was edited by his son, Christopher. In 2013, his title, The Hobbit (Movie Tie-In) made The New York Times Best Seller List.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
• Author: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
• Editors: Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien
• Compiled by: Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1981
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Aug 2, 2011
• ISBN: 0395315557, 9780395315552
• Length: 463 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures; Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy