Tolkien: A Biography [Paperback]

Michael J. White (Author), Michael White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2003

A comprehensive, authoritative, in depth and entertaining biography of one of the greatest and most influential fantasy authors in modern time, J.R.R. Tolkien.

In this informed an entertaining account, renowned biographer Michael White delves into the little-known life of one of the most treasured and enduring authors of our time, J.R.R. Tolkien.

In absorbing and revealing detail, White describes Tolkien's life -- from his childhood years and the tragic early death of his parents; his burgeoning romance with Edith Brett; fighting on the front lines in WWII; his many years as an Oxford academic, where the idea of the Hobbit struck him while marking a term paper; to his friendship with C.S. Lewis and the founding of the group "The Inklings"; and why The Lord of the Rings became the most influential book in the late sixties counter-culture, one of the most respected and most-read trilogies ever written, and the center of a major film phenomenon.

With 16 pages of black and white photos.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael White has been a science editor of British GQ, a columnist for the Sunday Express in London and, in a previous incarnation, he was a member of the Thompson Twins (1982).

Between 1984 and 1991 he was a science lecturer at d'Overbroeck's College in Oxford before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of more than twenty books.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451212428
• ISBN-13: 978-0451212429
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,168,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A ripoff of other, better biographies, October 19, 2005

By 

Noah All - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tolkien: A Biography (Paperback)

This biography is a highly commercialized ripoff. Avoid this. Humphrey Carpenter's definitive, authorized biography is vastly superior.

As far as I can tell, this book was written solely to capitalize on Tolkien's popularity. The introductory material makes clear that the author, White, wrote this with no independent knowledge of Tolkien's life. He admits that before starting this, he hadn't even read the Lord of the Rings since being a teenager. This book was written for one reason: to take your $$$$$.

If you're familiar with Carpenter's authorized biography, it quickly becomes apparent that this author has simply rearranged the material from Carpenter's book. The only information not lifted from Carptenter, from what I could discern, is a few bits lifted from another source: Tom Shippley's literary analysis of Tolkien. A wrinkle in the copyright laws (which gives less protection to biographies than to works of fiction) allows this sort of thing to happen. In schools everywhere, there's another name for it, which begins with a "p."

Moreover, Carpenter's biography is far stronger. Carpenter had access to Tolkien's papers, had met Tolkien, and studied at Oxford. He has also penned a biography on C.S. Lewis and the other Inklings. White, on the other hand, apparently had access only to Carpenter's biography; there is no evidence he did any independent research. Further still, Carpenter's authorized biography is charming and a pleasurable read, but this copycat version doesn't even offer that. And Carpenter's biography is only 250 pages, so this turkey isn't even more concise. Don't get suckered by this....

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Advised against., February 11, 2006

By 

Murray N. Dovey (Melbourne AUS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tolkien: A Biography (Paperback)

I wouldn't call this book biography. It's more a sort of "imaginative memoir"; where the author `recreates' his subject's life (including being privy to his thoughts and emotional states) as a way of padding out his meagre research. It's also marked by glib generalizations, facile writing, and persistent illiteracy. Save your money.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Michael White's misunderstandings, January 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Tolkien: A Biography (Paperback)

White frequently attempts to make vivid and interesting things he knows nothing about. Thus, he describes Tolkien's grueling introductory training in the British army and the intense preparatory training for trench warfare at Etaples as "idle time." He also writes that at Etaples, soldiers had little to worry about aside from mines and snipers. In fact, Etaples was so far from the front that neither of these endangered the troops there. White, moreover, describes soldiers greasing their bayonets as they moved in trains toward the fighting. In fact, the bayonets were oiled. Some reading of the standard British Great War memoirs by Sassoon and Graves, who served in the trenches, would have kept White from his egregious mistakes. A useful corrective to White is John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War.

See the amazon.canada reviews for further exposure of White's many errors.