I could read through these letters a hundred times. Perhaps I already have and it has just blurred together. So many interesting facts in here. Getting a glimpse into his writing process through his conversations is truly priceless.

I don't agree with all of the man's ideals. That doesn't surprise me, considering he was devoutly religious and I have never been a fan of religion of any kind (save perhaps Buddhism). The man is my hero, though I'm not entirely sure the two of us would get along if we spoke to each other at length. Especially with me being gay and him being a passionate Christian; a passionate Christian of the 1930s, mind you (upon The Hobbit's release). Not exactly progressive thinkers in that time. But I still find it enjoyable to hear his thoughts on deeper things beyond writing. Perhaps I'm wrong, as he was a very kind and thoughtful individual in life. Perhaps we could, in fact, see eye-to-eye if we ever met. We never will, but I have a high enough opinion of him to assume he sees the best in all people. I like to think so.

My rambling aside, this is a must-read for any Tolkien fanboy/girl.

2013: Truly a lovely man, with a mind worth getting to know.

2022: It makes no sense to give a rating to someone's personal and professional letters (neither conceived as art or for the public eye), let alone to critique them, so I won't. What I will say is that Tolkien was fascinating, deeply insightful, and wise. It never ceases to amaze me how consonant my thoughts and sentiments are to his own, separated though we were by a few generations: the love of trees, the delight in "phonetic aesthetics", the drive to express that which is most deeply felt in myth and story, the skepticism with the wide world and its shiny, inhuman machines, and the list goes on. While we are somewhat at odds with the belief in a personal God, when he writes about Catholicism, even I find myself somewhat wishing I were a papist. (Not enough to convert the heathen, but a testament to his thought and capacity for language.)

I grew increasingly despondent as I read through time, realizing his letters were slowing down, and his death nearing. From the last letter, to his daughter Priscilla, it seemed as though he was in fine health; but, four days later, he was dead. It was too much to wish for one more letter, as though another page would delay death and his errand. Alas. It was also very sobering to read his self-admonishments, which in so many ways echo those I throw at myself: "squandered" time (even though I am much more mindful of the silliness of this phrase than seemed Tolkien, who had not the Buddhist in him), the desire and failure to escape the dreariness of bureaucracy and imposed (not self-elected) labor, and the acknowledgement of no small amount of myopia, pedantry, and impatience with the dull(-witted).

Above all, one of the chief virtues of this book is that we see how easy it is to let time "slip away from us." Letters (and months) go by for Tolkien, with no progress whatsoever on any of the things he cared about most; life's little exigencies — sickness, moving houses, professional kerfuffles and shenanigans — are always present and seem more pressing than truly they are. Perhaps that is the primary lesson we can draw from these letters: that humans have a funny relation to time, and neither Elf nor Man among us (except the rare Aragorn) can escape the desire to change this relationship.

This book was fascinating, primarily because with about 60 years of fans and critics publishing their ideas on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was interesting to read the ideas of the man himself. I have not read his biography, but I cannot imagine it could be nearly as detailed as the letters collected in this volume. Granted, this book should not be read by folks just interested in The Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, or Silmarillion. There is plenty of that (and it is FANTASTIC AND JUICY!), but the vast majority of the book focuses on Tolkien himself through the writing process but also through his life. That being said, his thoughts and ideas on expanding Middle Earth are incredible to read, and it makes this reader wish he'd had just a few years left in his long life to see some of these ideas come to print. Alas.

n  

“Frodo deserved all honour because he spent every drop of his power of will and body, and that was just sufficient to bring him to the destined point, and no further. Few others, possibly no others of his time, would have got so far.”

n

You guys better start giving Frodo the respect he deserves.

This is a collection of letters written by our beloved author. We get to see some parts of his private life (he really loved his family

I don't think I can relay just how much I loved reading this. A lot of information about the characters, themes, and linguistic elements in his writing, as well as a nice glimpse into his role as father, husband, and professor. As a more-than-casual fan of Tolkien, I found this book to be extremely insightful, and can't believe it took me this long to finally read it.

Tijdens het lezen bekroop mij de vraag wat Tolkien zelf van boek zou vinden. Meermalen geeft hij aan geen nut te zien in het analyseren van een schrijver om boeken beter te begrijpen. "Mijn verhalen zijn bedoeld om van te genieten als avonturen. Ik zie niet in hoe de persoonlijke details van mijn leven daaraan bij kunnen dragen." Als hij een brief ontvangt van een lezer die wetenschappelijke onderzoek naar zijn werken en leven wil doen, reageert hij kort en afwijzend: "Het spijt mij als deze brief een beetje knorrig overkomt. Ik heb een uitgesproken hekel aan dergelijke analyses".

We kunnen ons dus afvragen of Tolkien zelf de waarde van dit boek zou zien. Wat ik wel weet is wat ik van dit boek vond. Ik vond het prachtig. Als fan (bucketlistitem #7: alles van Tolkien gelezen hebben) geeft dit boek een onschatbare waarde aan inzicht in het denken en de persoon van Tolkien.
Hoe is het begonnen? (Met het uitvinden van een taal)
Wat bedoelt Tolkien met...? (Niets, Tolkien heeft nooit een allegorie willen schrijven)
Waar komt de naam Gamgee vandaan? (Van een wattenmerk uit Tolkiens jeugd)

Dit boek bevat veel opmerkelijke inzichten. De reactie van Tolkien op Hitler, WOII en de vernazi-ing van het 'Noordse'. Zijn hartverscheurende brief na het overlijden van zijn vrouw over hoe zij model stond voor Lúthien. Dat hij Frodo heeft laten falen bij de Doemberg omdat Frodo geen klassieke held is ("Helden behalen de eer en overwinning, maar slechts weinig mensen zijn nederig genoeg om slechts een werktuig van het goede te zijn."). Zijn worsteling met de immer fanatieker wordende fans. Zijn worsteling met het feit dat hij zijn levenswerk (De Silmarillion) maar niet in een publiceerbare vorm kreeg.

In het licht van Tolkiens afwijzing van analyse van zijn persoon schrijft hij uiteindelijk dat het misschien wat toevoegt om iets van de schrijver van een goed boek te weten, maar pas nadat men uitgebreid heeft genoten van het verhaal op zich. Ik heb genoten van de boeken van Tolkien en heb genoten van de inzichten in deze collectie brieven.

Na de laatste brief, 4 dagen voor zijn overlijden, had ik hetzelfde gevoel als bij het einde van de trilogie. Frodo was vertrokken, Pepijn en Merijn hadden afscheid genomen en Sam ging naar huis, kreeg zijn dochtertje op schoot en zei "Welnu, ik ben thuis." Ik wilde meer weten over deze hobbits, over de wereld van Midden-Aarde, over hoe het verder ging met... Ik moest echter afscheid van ze nemen.

Dat gevoel had ik na dit boek. Het was niet altijd spannend, soms repetitief of saai, maar aan het eind wil ik geen afscheid nemen van Tolkien, zijn verlangens, dromen, knorrigheid en verhalen. Maar ik moet. Tolkien is niet meer, zijn werken blijven. Ik hoop nog steeds op een Inklings-in-het-hiernamaals, waar ik kan luisteren naar Lewis en Tolkien op hun best in een hemelse 'Bird and the baby'.

I really enjoyed reading through this and discussing with my reading buddy.
I especially loved the letters to his family and close friends.
Some of the business letters got a little boring, but that is to be expected.
I felt this book really gave me insight into Tolkien’s personality, his inner workings, his writing, and such the way biographies have not.

“It is a curse having an epic temperament in an overcrowded age [1944] devoted to sappy bits!”

A treasure trove of insightful material into the life and writings of Tolkien, but not for everyone. Readers uninterested in Tolkien’s writings need not waste their time.

Where to start? With the negatives, since they’re so few. Tolkien is opinionated, peevish and pedantic. He hated the appellation “professor.”

Among these letters covering most of his adult life, we learn how he viewed his world, his writings, his friends, his religion and his invented languages and history. That is how he saw Middle Earth as history he had discovered as much as created—or, as he would say, sub-created. The letters begin shortly after The Hobbit was published and cover the production of The Lord of the Rings and the aftermath of its unexpected popularity, and his futile struggle to complete and publish The Silmarillion, which his son Christopher succeeded in publishing five years after his father died.

For those, like myself, who count Tolkein’s works as the gold standard of epic fantasy, these letters give insights only alluded to elsewhere. It’s slow and difficult reading in some cases, partly because context is missing. But the payoff is deeper appreciation of Tolkien’s life and world (real and imagined). We learn the origin of the world, names and characters of the fantasy, and his struggle to keep others from reading alien ideas into the works. Though he admitted (in 1939), “The darkness of the present days has had some effect on it.”

“A most amusing and highly contentious evening, on which (had an outsider eavesdropped) he would have thought it (the Inklings) a meeting of fell enemies hurling deadly insults before drawing their guns.” Sounds like fun.

Now I'll the only logical thing: re-read The Lord of the Rings. Again.

Ich habe dieses Buch über 6 Monate in Etappen gelesen. Am Stück ist es zu anstrengend. Aber am Ende fand ich es besser und lehrreicher als jede Biografie. Es ist schon erstaunlich, wenn man einem Autor in seinen eigenen Worten sowohl beim Nachdenken als auch beim Altern zuhören kann -die Texte aber keine Tagebücher sind, sondern etwas, das immer schon mit einem Adressat im Kopf verfasst wurde. Verschiedene Dinge werden dabei sehr klar, wenn man sie nicht vorher wusste:
* Tolkien war ein absolut ungeplanter Autor, der von der Inspiration lebte und dessen Inspiration ständig da war, aber definitiv niemand, der Geschichten plottete und effizient arbeitete.
* Tolkiens Katholizismus ist überall im Herrn der Ringe, aber nicht so platt und allegorisch, wie es manchmal gerne dargestellt wird. (Ich mag insbesondere die Idee von der "Eukatastrophe", die er mehrfach darlegt und die eine endlos gute Antwort auf die typischste Beschwerde über das Ende des Herrn der Ringe ist.)
* Tolkien war schon ein ziemlich Alter Weißer Mann(tm) lange bevor er tatsächlich alt war, aber er wusste das auch zu einem gewissen Grad - er war aber auch ein sehr mitfühlender und humanistischer Mensch, und es zeigt wieder mal, wie komplex die ganze Sache ist.

Ich habe mich während des Lesens außerdem gefragt, ob Werke wie dieses mit dem Ende des Briefeschreibens der Vergangenheit angehören. Es gibt ja durchaus Autor:innen, die nach wie vor sehr viel schriftlich über ihr Leben und Werk und Drumherum nachdenken, nur halt meistens eher in Form von Blogs, Newslettern, Tweets etc. - Wären solche redaktionellen Zusammenstellungen in Zukunft denkbar? Wären sie interessant?

"I do not know all the answers. Much of my own book puzzles me."

Tolkienovy dopisy bych bez rozmýšlení strčila do pomyslné škatulky naprosté povinnosti. Vlastně jsem si během čtení několikrát smutně povzdechla, protože český překlad by byl rozhodně na místě. Prosím, prosím. Tahle věc dokresluje plno sounáležitostí, dokončuje rozestavěné puzzle, a když ne, tak v něm minimálně pokračuje. Vzbuzuje otázky a naprosto nekompromisně odpovídá na tu jednu mnohdy opomíjenou. Byl by Tolkien někdy spokojený s jakoukoliv adaptací? Nebyl. no a pokud si nakonec potřebujete trošku dokreslit, jak na tom otec Středozemě byl, co se povahy týče, atmosféra mnoha a mnoha dopisů, vám na to ráda odpoví.

Bello all’inizio in quanto è stato subito evidente che con questa lettura fosse possibile di conoscere molto su Tolkien; poi però è diventato crescentemente noioso (anche perché non tutte le lettere sono state di mio interesse): sembrava che il libro non finisse mai! Sono stata sul punto di abbandonarlo, ma poi ho deciso ultimarlo e devo dire che, alla fine dei conti, è stata una giusta decisione: sono contenta di averlo letto.
Ciò che non ho apprezzato sono state le note, in quanto il curatore delle stesse ha voluto sminuire, in maniera piuttosto faziosa, l’importanza e l’influenza della fede cattolica nelle opere di Tolkien. Questo cozza fortemente con ciò che emerge lettura dell’epistolario, in cui emerge chiaramente il contrario.
Per tale ragione molto consigliano la vecchia edizione denominata “La realtà in trasparenza”, ormai irreperibile.
Trovo che la lettura delle lettere sia adatta a chi intende portare avanti un vero e studio su Tolkien, in quanto persona e autore.
Mi sento di consigliarlo altresì ai semplici appassionati delle sue opere, suggerendo però caldamente di consultare le note con spirito critico, di leggerlo senza fretta, un po’ per volta, concedendosi dei periodi di interruzione e/o magari affiancandolo ad altre letture.

An excerpt from a letter to Walter Hooper, 20 February 1968:
"I remember Jack [C.S. Lewis:] telling me a story of Brightman, the distinguished ecclesiastical scholar, who used to sit quietly in Common Room saying nothing except on rare occasions. Jack said that there was a discussion on dragons one night and at the end Brightman's voice was heard to say, 'I have seen a dragon.' Silence. 'Where was that?' he was asked. 'On the Mount of Olives,' he said. He relapsed into silence and never before his death explained what he meant."

Very few things could be more imagination-sparking than reading that late at night curled up with a massive book of letters when one is already thinking about wonderful things. I think it's very healthy to believe in the possibility of things, it makes life so much more interesting.