Tolkein: Maker Of Middle Earth

Author: Catherine McIlwaine

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $100.00 AUD
  • : 9781851244850
  • : Bodleian Library
  • : Bodleian Library
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  • : 1.858
  • : April 2018
  • : 259mm X 237mm
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  • : 79.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

  • :
  • :
  • : Catherine McIlwaine
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  • : Hardback
  • : 1
  • :
  • : English
  • : 823.914
  • : 416
  • : D
  • : 300 Illustrations, color
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Barcode 9781851244850
9781851244850

Description

The range of J. R. R. Tolkien's talents is remarkable. Not only was he an accomplished linguist and philologist, as well as a scholar of Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature and Norse folklore, but also a skillful illustrator and storyteller. Drawing on these talents, he created a universe which is for many readers as real as the physical world they inhabit daily.

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth explores the huge creative endeavor behind Tolkien's enduring popularity. Lavishly illustrated with three hundred images of his manuscripts, drawings, maps, and letters, the book traces the creative process behind his most famous literary works--The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion--and reproduces personal photographs and private papers, many of which have never been seen before in print.

Six essays introduce the reader to the person of J. R. R. Tolkien and to main themes in his life and work, including the influence of northern languages and legends on the creation of his own legendarium; his concept of "Fa rie" as an enchanted literary realm; the central importance of his invented languages in his fantasy writing; his visual imagination and its emergence in his artwork; and the encouragement he derived from his close friend C. S. Lewis and their literary group the Inklings.

The book brings together the largest collection of original Tolkien material ever assembled in a single volume. Drawing on the extensive archives of the Tolkien collections at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, which stretch to more than five hundred boxes, and Marquette University, Milwaukee, as well as private collections, this hugely ambitious and exquisitely produced book draws together the worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien - scholarly, literary, creative, and domestic--offering a rich and detailed understanding and appreciation of this extraordinary author.

This landmark publication, produced on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford in 2018 and at the Morgan Library in New York in 2019, is set to become a standard work in the literature on J. R. R. Tolkien.

Author description

Catherine McIlwaine is the Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

Table of contents

Contents Foreword Note to the Reader 1. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch, by Catherine McIlwaine 2. Tolkien and the Inklings, by John Garth 3. Faerie: Tolkien's Perilous Land, by Verlyn Flieger 4. Inventing Elvish, by Carl F. Hostetter 5. Tolkien and `that noble northern spirit', by Tom Shippey 6. Tolkien's Visual Art, by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull CATALOGUE Reading Tolkien: `to England; to my country' Childhood: `the undarkened heart and mind' Student Days: `Friendship to the Nth power' Sheer Invention: 'new patterns of old colours' The Silmarillion: `myth-woven and elf-patterned' The Professor at Home: `from time already mortgaged' The Hobbit: `In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' The Lord of the Rings: `lightning from a clear sky' Mapping Middle-earth: `Not all those who wander are lost' Further Reading Acknowledgements Contributors Picture credits Index