Tolkien, A Biography

[Comic Book Guy]

Humphrey Carpenter's (Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, The Inklings) is indeed a gem, I would never normally read Autobiographys etc but I was interested in this because he is the writer of the Lord of the rings. Rather than give little information and large pictures, Carpenter gives his recollections of his own personal meeting with Tolkien and information from his family and papers. I was surprised at the amount of detail it goes into, such as family roots and small events such as Tolkiens incident with a Trantula [sp].

A favourite piece is a letter by Tolkien to his father when he was 3, he dictated it to his nurse.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

The biography is not only interesting, with a number of insights into JRRT and the making of Middle-earth, but it also gave me the idea, while in Oxford in the late '80s, of doing an Inklings graves and other sites tour. The TIC gave out a brochure prepared by The Tolkien Society in 1978.
JRRT's, and wife's, is in Wolvercote, and is reminiscent of an American modern cemetery, Charles Williams' is in center-city Oxford wiyh an atmosphere rather like (Gondor's?), and C. S. Lewis is in the other direction from Tolkien's, near the Kilns, the church and cemetery seeming to me like a small-town American Protestant (say York or Sunbury, Pa.), burial place, adjacent to the church.
Someone interested in Tolien/The Inklings really should read the book and visit some related sites in Oxford. I did to a number of them, including three Inkling gravesites, in one day- by bus. probably could also do so by bicycle. And while at Wolvercote an American family came by, with their son (a LOTR fan) whose idea it really was to visit the site., traveling by car. The inscription above the grave is nicely done, not too ostentatious. And one of the photographs I took shows some nice trees in the background.
I've still got the brochure. I went by the Bird and Baby, but it wasn't open at the time.

[azalea]

I'm about to start reading this. I checked it out from the library along with BoLT 1. Because it is refered to so often in Letters, I decided to read it simultaneously.:)

[Tuor of Gondolin]

IN Carpenter's Biography he discusses the losses of close friends in World War I, but, if anything, he may underplay the effect of losing close friends and experience with the war itself must have had on JRRt's psyche, he was in the Battle of the Somme. This excerpt from a magazine I browsed at Barnes and Noble, called Military Heritage, may convey the lasting impression it must have had on him and his writing:


"Verdun was ghoulish, Kaiserschlacht vast and breathtaking, but the Somme-or rather the first day of the battle-lingers in memory as an intensely sad affair, a monumental loss of innocence not only for the British Army, but for Britain itself, and the world. Those tragic, cheering ranks of 'Pals' and 'Chums' battalions hurled into eternity with the fluid sweep of the machine gun cannot be forgotten. Entire firms, neighborhoods, and villages had suddenly lost all their young men. At the time, the impact of this was profound, especially as loved ones compared the immensely long casualty lists with official pap. A whole generation had been extinguished, an immense loss that is still felt today, and lies like a black dream within the psyche of the British nation. The trauma was a factor in transforming the sociopolitical landscape of postwar Britain. On the grassy expanses of the Somme, notions of war as a chivalric adventure died. Concepts of obedience and an unquestioning belief in one's leaders vanished. Indeed, 'the Somme' has become a byword for a bloody, protracted, and senseless massacre. The antiwar, anti-authority revolts of youths from the summer of 1968 have their roots in the bitter experiences of the youths killed in the summer of 1916."

There is this entry on p. 84 of HC's Biography:
" '15 July 1916
My dear John Ronald,
I saw in the paper this morning that Rob has been killed.
I am safe but what does that matter?
Do please stick to me, you and Christopher. I am very tired and most frightfully depressed at this worst of news.
Now one realizes in despair what the T.C.B.S. really was.
O my dear John Ronald what ever are we going to do?
Yours ever,
G.B.S.'

Rob Gilson had died at la Boisselle, leading his men into action on the first day of battle, July 1."

[Attalus]

I really enjoyed the Biography, and feel that Humphrey Carpenter, along with Tom Shippey, are the best commentators and critics that Tolkien has ever had. It really gives you a lot of insight into him. Highly recommended.

[Shadowfax]

Originally posted by Attalus
I really enjoyed the Biography, and feel that Humphrey Carpenter, along with Tom Shippey, are the best commentators and critics that Tolkien has ever had. It really gives you a lot of insight into him. Highly recommended. Oh, I definitely second that! Carpenter's Biography and Shippey's Road to Middle-earth are excellent!:D