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The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition
A meticulous gathering of letters covering the adult life of one of the world's most renowned storytellers, now updated and enlarged to include over 150 previously unseen letters, offering fresh insights into The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
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About the author
J.R.R. Tolkien
797 books78k followersJohn 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.
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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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 7, 2026
The *Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien* is an amazing read. I’ve been keen to learn more about Tolkien’s life, his relationship with his sons, and especially his creative process for quite a while now. I believe it is quite natural, when one is deeply in love with a certain piece of art, to want to know more about its creator (perhaps a reflection of our desire to know our Creator). This book contends that very desire.
Tolkien’s creative process is incredibly satisfying to observe, and it’s something I think many authors—aspiring or already successful—could learn from. What I notice most is that Tolkien does not confine himself to a single way of producing art. His work seems to evolve very naturally. He does not fit neatly into a specific writing convention (such as the “gardener” or the “architect,” or whatever creative-type metaphor you prefer). Rather, he simply writes. He drafts and drafts, rewrites where he feels the need, and plans ahead where he feels it is necessary. I get the impression that he holds a basic concept of his works in his mind, but that the process of actually writing them is like carving marble or wood. He takes his time, examining the angles and polishing where and when it needs polishing. It is deeply interesting to watch, much like the fascination one feels when observing a carver at work.
Additionally, I find myself equally fascinated by his relationships with others, particularly his sons. It seems that at one time he was emotionally distant during their early childhood, and later came to recognize this. These letters begin when Tolkien’s eldest son, Michael, is sent off to fight in World War II. His beautiful letters of biblical wisdom and marital advice are deeply moving in their humility and sincerity, offering wisdom to all who read them. My favourites, however, remain the letters written to his son Christopher, with whom he shared a deep bond. They cover similar topics, but the care and soul Tolkien poured into them are especially inspiring.
Tolkien has become, for me, an excellent role model—not only in creativity, but also in future fatherhood. Readers will find not only delightful LOTR-centered insights in his letters, but also profound wisdom. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Inklings or in the life of J. R. R. Tolkien. I owe a great debt of thanks to Christopher Tolkien (who has, alas, now passed) for the effort and labor he devoted to assembling this remarkable collection of letters.
Tolkien’s creative process is incredibly satisfying to observe, and it’s something I think many authors—aspiring or already successful—could learn from. What I notice most is that Tolkien does not confine himself to a single way of producing art. His work seems to evolve very naturally. He does not fit neatly into a specific writing convention (such as the “gardener” or the “architect,” or whatever creative-type metaphor you prefer). Rather, he simply writes. He drafts and drafts, rewrites where he feels the need, and plans ahead where he feels it is necessary. I get the impression that he holds a basic concept of his works in his mind, but that the process of actually writing them is like carving marble or wood. He takes his time, examining the angles and polishing where and when it needs polishing. It is deeply interesting to watch, much like the fascination one feels when observing a carver at work.
Additionally, I find myself equally fascinated by his relationships with others, particularly his sons. It seems that at one time he was emotionally distant during their early childhood, and later came to recognize this. These letters begin when Tolkien’s eldest son, Michael, is sent off to fight in World War II. His beautiful letters of biblical wisdom and marital advice are deeply moving in their humility and sincerity, offering wisdom to all who read them. My favourites, however, remain the letters written to his son Christopher, with whom he shared a deep bond. They cover similar topics, but the care and soul Tolkien poured into them are especially inspiring.
Tolkien has become, for me, an excellent role model—not only in creativity, but also in future fatherhood. Readers will find not only delightful LOTR-centered insights in his letters, but also profound wisdom. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Inklings or in the life of J. R. R. Tolkien. I owe a great debt of thanks to Christopher Tolkien (who has, alas, now passed) for the effort and labor he devoted to assembling this remarkable collection of letters.
December 7, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-letters-of-j-r-r-tolkien-revised-and-expanded-edition-ed-humphrey-carpenter-with-christopher-tolkien/
I’m a bit of a Tolkien obsessive, as you may perhaps have noticed, and this is the primary source for a lot of the stories about his life that I have known and loved for decades. I read all of the History of Middle Earth volumes a few years ago, but even so, it’s quite a delight to read about his writing in his own words. I knew that the process of writing The Lord of the Rings was painful and difficult; I had not realised that it was literally painful, given the extent of his and Edith’s ill health at the point that he was struggling to complete the book; perhaps there is a selection effect in that people in those days instinctively wrote openly to business partners about their medical problems?
He also complains bitterly about the costs of tax and housing – he and Edith moved several times to smaller and smaller places, and only at the end did Merton College provide him with free lodging and partial board, for which he was duly grateful.
His relationship with children and grandchildren seems to have been genuinely warm and loving. There are no letters to his daughter here, but that is presumably accidental, as she is mentioned in passing in other correspondence. He lived long enough to see his grandchildren starting on their careers, which obviously gave him much pleasure.
There are still some surprises. At the end of May 1945, writing to his sone Christopher about the coming end of WW2 in Asia, he says, “as I know nothing about British or American imperialism in the Far East that does not fill me with regret and disgust, I am afraid I am not even supported by a glimmer of patriotism in this remaining war.” There is also some poorly articulated but deep anger at the racist policies of the government of South Africa, where he was born. One of those cases where an icon slightly exceeds one’s hopes.
And there’s his lovely reminiscence of his first encounter with Finnish, in a 1955 letter to W.H. Auden:
"It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."
And I love this namedropping story from a January 1965 letter to his son Michael:
"An amusing incident occurred in November, when I went as a courtesy to hear the last lecture of this series of his given by the Professor of Poetry: Robert Graves. (A remarkable creature, entertaining, likeable, odd, bonnet full of wild bees, half-German, half-Irish, very tall, must have looked like Siegfried/Sigurd in his youth, but an Ass.) It was the most ludicrously bad lecture I have ever heard. After it he introduced me to a pleasant young woman who had attended it: well but quietly dressed, easy and agreeable, and we got on quite well. But Graves started to laugh; and he said: it is obvious neither of you has ever heard of the other before’. Quite true. And I had not supposed that the lady would ever have heard of me. Her name was Ava Gardner, but it still meant nothing, till people more aware of the world informed me that she was a film-star of some magnitude, and that the press of pressmen and storm of flash-bulbs on the steps of the Schools were not directed at Graves (and cert. not at me) but at her…."
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who is not a Tolkien completist; but there are a lot of us around.
I’m a bit of a Tolkien obsessive, as you may perhaps have noticed, and this is the primary source for a lot of the stories about his life that I have known and loved for decades. I read all of the History of Middle Earth volumes a few years ago, but even so, it’s quite a delight to read about his writing in his own words. I knew that the process of writing The Lord of the Rings was painful and difficult; I had not realised that it was literally painful, given the extent of his and Edith’s ill health at the point that he was struggling to complete the book; perhaps there is a selection effect in that people in those days instinctively wrote openly to business partners about their medical problems?
He also complains bitterly about the costs of tax and housing – he and Edith moved several times to smaller and smaller places, and only at the end did Merton College provide him with free lodging and partial board, for which he was duly grateful.
His relationship with children and grandchildren seems to have been genuinely warm and loving. There are no letters to his daughter here, but that is presumably accidental, as she is mentioned in passing in other correspondence. He lived long enough to see his grandchildren starting on their careers, which obviously gave him much pleasure.
There are still some surprises. At the end of May 1945, writing to his sone Christopher about the coming end of WW2 in Asia, he says, “as I know nothing about British or American imperialism in the Far East that does not fill me with regret and disgust, I am afraid I am not even supported by a glimmer of patriotism in this remaining war.” There is also some poorly articulated but deep anger at the racist policies of the government of South Africa, where he was born. One of those cases where an icon slightly exceeds one’s hopes.
And there’s his lovely reminiscence of his first encounter with Finnish, in a 1955 letter to W.H. Auden:
"It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."
And I love this namedropping story from a January 1965 letter to his son Michael:
"An amusing incident occurred in November, when I went as a courtesy to hear the last lecture of this series of his given by the Professor of Poetry: Robert Graves. (A remarkable creature, entertaining, likeable, odd, bonnet full of wild bees, half-German, half-Irish, very tall, must have looked like Siegfried/Sigurd in his youth, but an Ass.) It was the most ludicrously bad lecture I have ever heard. After it he introduced me to a pleasant young woman who had attended it: well but quietly dressed, easy and agreeable, and we got on quite well. But Graves started to laugh; and he said: it is obvious neither of you has ever heard of the other before’. Quite true. And I had not supposed that the lady would ever have heard of me. Her name was Ava Gardner, but it still meant nothing, till people more aware of the world informed me that she was a film-star of some magnitude, and that the press of pressmen and storm of flash-bulbs on the steps of the Schools were not directed at Graves (and cert. not at me) but at her…."
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who is not a Tolkien completist; but there are a lot of us around.
December 19, 2025
Just finished this, and this is as close to a Tolkien autobiography as we are going to get. In these letters, we are sitting side by side with Tolkien, almost looking over his shoulder as it were. We experience his frustrations as a writer who has a busy life, a job that keeps him from spending more time writing, and yet somehow he squeezes in his Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and gets lost in his own maze of the Silmarillion. In an age where there a less creative talents getting funded to write awful YA books (all told in the 1st person), pretentious poetry, and unimaginative retellings, Tolkien is a breath fo fresh air. He works, tends to a family, and still finds time to play at his consuming hobby (which we now all enjoy). Another aspect that is very touching is Tolkien's friendship with C.S. Lewis, and which shines through in these letters, even as he levels criticism at his friend. Tolkien & Lewis were a bit like Lennon & McCartney in that way.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews