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The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

j.r.r. tolkien humphrey carpenter christopher tolkien

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This collection will entertain all who appreciate the art of masterful letter writing.  The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien sheds much light on J.R.R. Tolkien's creative genius and grand design for the creation of a whole new Middle-earth. Featuring a radically expanded index, this volume contains 354 letters, dating between October 1914, when Tolkien was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, and August 29, 1973, four days before his death. This is a valuable research tool for all fans wishing to trace the evolution of  The Hobbit  and  The Lord of the Rings.

502 pages, Paperback

First published August 20,1981

This edition

Format
502 pages, Paperback
Published
June 6, 2000 by William Morrow
ISBN
9780618056996
ASIN
0618056998
Language
English

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About the author

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j.r.r. tolkien

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien's most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium' that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children's stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Felicia_Liang
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This was a wonderful way to get to know the beautiful JRR Tolkien. Overall, the letters were very lovely but some were a bit dry (as to be expected).

The letters to his children through the years (especially during the war) were my favorite.

I enjoyed reading this with my friend Jamie.
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Lord_Trideth
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I discovered The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien back in '96 when I moved to an LA suburb and was searching through the library for something interesting to read while I took advantage of their free A/C during the blistering summer heat.

This was definitely something interesting, but only because I was a Tolkien fanboy. Who else would find joy in pouring over mostly mundane letters to friends, family and publishers? Me, I pored over over them, so happy to read even the most minuscule detail of the man's life.

It's been a while, so my recollection of what's contained in the letters is not precise. I seem to recall a feeling of being let down that more personal information wasn't revealed. English reserve seemed to be at play here.

The correspondence with his book publisher and seeing how that portion of his work came together held just as much interest, and there is a good deal of that herein, if I recall. I was already aware that Tolkien had some trouble convincing them to publish Lord of the Rings, even after the success of The Hobbit. And after publishing went forward, there was still a struggle over issues that needed ironing out. None of which is terribly riveting reading unless you're a fan.
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mothinasweater
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I was most surprised at some of the great tidbits of profound wisdom that showed up here and there in his letters describing parts of LOTR's specifically. It made the book mean even more.
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DDM55
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Tolkien’s letters are at times tedious and repetitive – just as life can be – but for the most part compelling reading material.

For a fan of Tolkien’s works, it is very interesting to read about the process of how they came to be written and published. Moreover, reading about his writing process itself is both inspiring and motivational to a writer, although Tolkien might be turning in his grave if he knew that people find his writing struggles either. Equally inspiring and thought-provoking are Tolkien’s world-views and philosophies, both general and academic, even if I disagree with some of them (which were a product of his time.)

The language, style, and tone of his letters range from intellectual and strictly formal to warm, familiar, and humorous in places, with an occasional special brand of ‘saltiness’ shining through which I greatly appreciated, and show him not only as an author but as a nuanced personality.

Tolkien’s letters are probably best appreciated if read and digested little by little and not to be sped through, although I have done precisely that with the second half of the book because I got fed up with myself that it was taking me so long.

Overall, Tolkien’s letters are a highly interesting read and therefore I definitely intend to return to them in the future.

This review was originally published on my book blog, Beyond Strange New Words.
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Haunted_Hare
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Well this is by far the longest relationship I’ve had with a book. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien have been sitting on my nightstand for two years and ten days. I’m not proud that it took me so long to get through, but I’m glad I tackled it.

The best thing about this compilation is the insight his letters provide into how he felt about his own writings. There’s not a ton of personal stuff, but there are endless letters to his publisher and fans who wrote him with questions about the books. He shredded (in a fairly polite and clever British way) anyone who was involved in publishing the books but treated them thoughtlessly - wildly inaccurate illustrations or lazy translations, for example. Those who bothered to read them and treat them with respect became lifelong friends (such as publisher Rayner Unwin). The average length of a letter to a reader is mind blowing and made me think that he must have absolutely loved discussing his books with fans.

I personally love that nearly every single letter to his editor began with apologies for how many months late he was on whatever deadline. The man was a perfectionist and could not be rushed. I don’t think Tolkien was really a professional author in the sense that his goal was to publish and sell books. He was a professor whose hobby became his obsession and the result just happened to be a literary world millions of fans wanted to obsess over as well, myself included.

If you’re not at the point of obsession, this book would probably be horribly tedious. The letters on language made my head spin. There are some great biographies (Humphrey Carpenter) that pull plenty of quotes from the Letters and I’d recommend those first.
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MaudoBomba
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Diese Zusammenstellung persönlicher und geschäftlicher Briefe von Tolkien hat mich sehr fasziniert! Wer den Hobbit, den Herrn der Ringe und bestenfalls auch das Silmarilion gelesen hat, und dazu auch noch an der Entstehung Mittelerdes, der dort gesprochenen Sprachen und letztenendes auch an Tolkien, dem Menschen selbst, interessiert ist, denen kann ich dieses Buch wärmstens empfehlen.

Wäre es besser (oder einfacher) gewesen, vorher Tolkiens Biographie zu lesen? Vielleicht. Dazu kann ich mich erst äußern, wenn ich sie zum Lesen aus dem Regal genommen habe. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt kann ich allerdings schon sagen, dass es mir großen Spaß gemacht hat, Tolkiens Leben anhand seiner Briefe (und einzelner Suchanfragen im Internet zu Personen, Orten, Jahreszahlen etc.) zusammenzusetzen. Es war ein bisschen wie eine Schnitzeljagd. :D
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hikari2905
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Goodreads says I started reading this book in March 2021 and here I am a year and a month later finally finishing it. Whew! I’m glad to finally be able to check this one off my list.

Some of the letters were tedious to read, some were very easy and interesting to read. Most of them were just mundane letters to family, friends, and his publishers, but after finishing them I can say that I feel I have a better understanding of one of my favorite writers. These letters may even have given me better insight to his personality than his biography by Humphrey Carpenter!

I tabbed a lot of pages and highlighted a good bit of passages throughout this book. Parts that I found highly interesting and passages that explained or touched on certain details in his published works. For instance, one fan wrote a letter to Tolkien asking if the Ents ever found the Entwives, and I loved Tolkien’s commentary on that!

Some pages had me laughing out loud while others had me frowning a bit. Tolkien could be a bit harsh and brash to his critics. And even more so to those translators! He had very little patience with them, as well as those American cover art illustrators!
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Kat0ka
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Es imposible ser objetivo con el Profesor y todo lo relacionado a él pero intentaré aunque sea algo.

Sin haber leído todavía la biografía de Carpenter este libro me ha dado una visión un poco más intimista de la vida en general de Tolkien, pero no es ahí donde destaca sino en los puntos de vista y perspectivas filosóficas, morales, críticas y creativas que el Profesor despliega en cartas formales e informales que -como toda correspondencia epistolar- presumen privacidad o al menos no masividad. Discusiones filológicas, lingüísticas y de su propio proceso creativo a lo que el legendarium refiere se mezclan con problemáticas mundanas como resfríos, falta de dinero y la preocupación por sus hijos. Las Cartas no son sólo una puerta de entrada al mundo de John sino un sillón para ponerse cómodo y disfrutar una fascinante mirada introspectiva a la obra de Tolkien y sus devenires autorales.

Post-data con spoiler: Las últimas cartas con la muerte de Edith harán llorar al más duro.
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