J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography Paperback – June 6, 2000

Considering the fact that Tolkien abhorred the idea of someone writing a biography on him, considering the fact he thought it ridiculous that someone should read a biography on a writer, and considering his sentiment that the best biography on an author is his works of fiction, calling this book the `authorized' account is pretty presumptuous.
Still, Carpenter manages the subject very well, chronicling Tolkien's life from his early years throughout his life, with a special amount of attention given to the period in which he was creating his `hobbit' stories. This is as much a look inside Tolkien's literary mind as a look at his life, and one of the most fascinating aspects of this work is that the reader is able to follow the development of Tolkien's creative genius and see the very elements that inspired him to write his masterpieces "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Silmarillion."
For his biography, Carpenter was able to meet personally with Tolkien before his death. He also had full access to all of Tolkien's papers and letters at Oxford. He was able to talk with many of Tolkien's friends and family. Because of this, Carpenter is able to present a very accurate, extremely reliable, and very personal biography. He is very fair with his subject, and treats Tolkien neither as a deity nor an eccentric old man. The man who created Middle Earth was human, and Carpenter captures this brilliantly.
This work on Tolkien is very highly recommended to any fan of his work who wants a peek inside the life of this remarkable man.

REVIEW OF HUMPHREY CARPENTER, J. R. R. TOLKIEN, A BIOGRAPHY (Geo. Allen & Unwin, 1977)
This is a biography that is hard to fault. Especially for a Tolkien fan, it is a page-turner, and enormously helpful in understanding Tolkien. It is written with great sympathy and empathy. Appendices provide a genealogical chart (how right for Tolkien!), a chronology, a complete list of published writings up to 1998 (at least in the Houghton Mifflin edition of 2000), and a list of Carpenter's sources.
The central issue in the Tolkien story, as in so many literary biographies, is the strange and mysterious manner in which books like _The Lord of the Rings_ can come out of what to all appearances are humdrum lives. Tolkien didn't even like to travel! In Tolkien's case we have also the additional question of how the human imagination can flower in a modern academic setting. Perhaps these are the two central questions to keep in mind while reading Carpenter, who is clearly often at pains to make Tolkien's life interesting enough to support his image. C. S. Lewis, a close friend of Tolkien, may have partially answered these questions when he wrote that "there are no ordinary people."
The issue of the Lewis-Tolkien friendship provides the quibble I have with Carpenter; it concerns the manner in which the devout Catholicism of Tolkien played a role in the eventual cooling of the friendship between the two men. C. S. Lewis, who was led to convert to Christianity in large part by Tolkien himself, decided to remain Protestant after his conversion, and returned to the Church of England. Carpenter notes especially Tolkien's dislike of Lewis's _Pilgrim's Regress_, which appeared in 1933 and was, I believe, his first book after his conversion. But Carpenter gives no sign of having read _Pilgrim's Regress_, and indeed does not include it in his Appendix D, "Sources and Acknowledgements." Thus Carpenter missed something which might go far in accounting for Tolkien's dislike of that work. In _Pilgrim's Regress_, Book 6, Part ii, "Three Pale Men" we find this exchange (Mr. Neo-Angular is the Catholic):
[begin quote] John was too tired and Drudge too respectful to reply: but Vertue said to Mr. Neo-Angular, "You are very kind. You are saving our lives." "I am not kind at all," said Mr. Neo-Angular with some warmth. "I am doing my duty. My ethics are based on dogma, not feeling." "I understand you very well," said Vertue. "May I shake hands with you?" "Can it be," said the other, "that you are one of us? You are a Catholic? A scholastic?" "I know nothing about that," said Vertue, "but I know that the rule is to be obeyed because it is a rule and not because it appeals to my feelings at the moment." "I see you are not one of us," said Angular, "and you are undoubtedly damned. Virtutes paganorum spendida vitia. Now let us eat." [end quote]
Though Mr. Neo-Angular's (and Vertue's) point is valid for any Christian, this caricature of Catholicism would no doubt have been as much of a shock to Tolkien as it was for me, another confirmed admirer of Lewis, when I first saw it. And yet, literary critics who see Mary, the Blessed Virgin, in Tolkien's Galadriel can hardly fail (though I have never seen it mentioned) to see Mary also in Lewis's personification, Reason ("The Giant Slayer"). In Book 3 of _Pilgrim's Regress_ we find Reason portrayed as a woman "wound in a cloak of blue," a woman in the flower of her age, a sun-bright virgin" (Part ix) who in Book 4, Part ii, is portrayed as a mother figure, and in Part iv is referred to as "the Virgin." Lewis apparently even knew that one of Mary's titles is "Seat of Wisdom."
Well, C. S. Lewis's grasp of Catholicism is forever a mystery. But Carpenter's treatment of this issue would, I submit, have been improved by a reading of _Pilgrim's Regress_.
Tolkien fans, or people who would just like an excuse to re-read _The Lord of the Rings_, will like to have some maps handy (recall that Bilbo Baggins loved maps). I can speak highly for Barbara Strachey, _Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings_ (Ballantine Books, NY, 1981; and Karen Wynn Fonstad, _The Atlas of Middle-Earth_ *revised edition* (Houghton Mifflin, 1991). Be sure to get the revised edition of Fonstad.

This book is the definitive biography of one of the 20th century's most beloved authors, JRR Tolkien. Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien's official biographer was given unprecendeted access to Tolkien family members and family papers, and this clearly shows. Tolkien's early life, his love of Edith Bratt, his devout faith and his war-time experiences are all chronicled, giving new understanding to his life as not only the premier fantasy-genre author of his day (and of all time, for that matter), but also his academic career as a noted philologist, and his relationship with "The Inklings", especially CS Lewis.
No fan of Tolkien will want to be without this book.
Tolkien fans will also want to read "Letters of JRR Tolkien" also edited by Carpenter, and fans of the Inklings as a literary group will want to read Carpenter's "The Inklings".
5 solid stars for this biography.

Tolkien readers who want to know more about the man behind The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings need look no further than Humphrey Carpenter's thorough biography. Carpenter dispells many myths concerning Tolkien's early life and values, but more importantly shows that the famous author lived a full life even though enduring loss and hardship through two world wars.
Some of Tolkien's private correspondence, shared by his family, is published only in this book, and it reveals how profoundly the man was affected by the people with whom he became close. He was literally robbed of an entire generation of friends by the first world war, and the experience resonated throughout the remainder of his life.
The most poignant moments in Tolkien's life bear a strong resemblance to the moments in his heroes' lives when they turned dark days around and moved out into the full sunlight. One almost gets the feeling that Tolkien's achievements overshadowed those of his characters. He was a magical man in many ways, and must have eaten a piece of cake with a star embedded in it when he was a child.