shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | November 19, 2009

Dave: IMG Finding John Irving: The Powells.com Interview



johnirving[Editor's note: The following is a reprint of our 2005 interview with John Irving, whose new novel, Last Night in Twisted River, has just come out... Continue »
  1. $19.60 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$15.00
New Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Burnside Science Fiction and Fantasy- A to Z
25 Local Warehouse Biography- Literary
14 Remote Warehouse Biography- Literary

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

by J. R. R. Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

"...If you wanted to go on from the end of The Hobbit I think the ring would be your inevitable choice as the link. If then you wanted a large tale, the Ring would at once acquire a capital letter; and the Dark Lord would immediately appear. As he did, unasked, on the hearth at Bag End as soon as I came to that point. So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things along the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner of the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than Frodo did. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlorien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there." — J.R.R. Tolkien to W.H. Auden, June 7, 1955

J.R.R. Tolkien, cherished author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was one of the twentieth century's most prolific letter writers. Over the years he wrote a mass of letters — to his publishers, his family, to friends, and to fans of his books — which record the history and composition of his works and his reaction to subsequent events.

By turns thoughtful, impish, scholarly, impassioned, playful, vigorous, and gentle, Tolkien poured his heart and mind into a great stream of correspondence to intimate friends and unknown admirers all over the world. From this collection one sees a mind of immense complexity and many layers — artistic, religious, charmingly eccentric, sentimental, and ultimately brilliant.

Now newly expanded with a detailed index, this collection provides an invaluable record that sheds much light on Tolkien's creative genius, his thoughts and feelings about his own work, and the evolution of his grand design for the creation of a whole new world — Middle-earth.

Description:

Appearing in paperback for the first time with a newly expanded Index comes this collection of personal letters, the only source for Tolkien's own thoughts on the creation and meaning of Middle-earth.

About the Author

'Humphrey Carpenter, the author of THE BRIDESHEAD GENERATION and THE INKLINGS, among other books, was given unrestricted access to all of Tolkien\'s papers for his biography of Tolkien, J.R.R. TOLKIEN: A BIOGRAPHY.J.R.R. Tolkien (18921973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own.'

Product Details

ISBN:
9780618056996
Author:
J. R. R. Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien
Publisher:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
With:
Tolkien, Christopher
Selected:
Carpenter, Humphrey
Editor:
Carpenter, Humphrey
Author:
Tolkien, J.R.
Author:
Tolkien, Christopher
Author:
Carpenter, Humphrey
Author:
R
Author:
Tolkien, J.R.R.
Location:
Boston :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Authors, English
Subject:
Correspondence
Subject:
Middle earth (Imaginary place)
Subject:
Fantasy literature
Subject:
Middle Earth
Subject:
Anglicists
Subject:
Authors, English -- 20th century.
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Publication Date:
June 2000
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
480
Dimensions:
8.17x5.52x1.23 in. 1.16 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $16.00 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    The Children of Hurin

    J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
  2. $3.25 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    The Tolkien Reader

    J R R Tolkien
  3. $8.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  4. $12.00 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  5. $30.00 New Hardcover add to wish list

    Peoples of Middle-Earth

    J. R. R. Tolkien
  6. $18.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Annotated Hobbit

    J R R Tolkien

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.