Tag Archives: Nonfiction

Writing a post on John Rateliff’s encyclopedic The History of the Hobbit isn’t the problem.  The problem is writing one that doesn’t turn into a 3,000 word behemoth itself.  I will try very hard to keep this post to a … Continue reading →

Joseph Loconte’s book may not have the erudition of the work of a Tom Shippey or a John D. Rateliff, but A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War may be my favorite work on nonfiction on Tolkien.  It is a … Continue reading →

At some point even a “101” look at Tolkien has to consider the other Inklings.  I had read both the fiction and nonfiction of C.S. Lewis, but The Fellowship was the first book I read to really cover the other … Continue reading →

Tom Shippey believes J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of the century and does not care who knows it.  After laying out the case against—the opinions of literati and the intellectual elite, many of whom obviously never read Tolkien—Shippey moves on … Continue reading →

The best thing that can be said about Brown’s biography of Tolkien is also the worst: it is very short.  192 pages (in paperback) isn’t much room to tell the story of anyone’s life, let alone Tolkien’s.  Brown’s biography was … Continue reading →