Excellent book on the author of the milennium...shows how his writing was influenced by the events of his life. Very touching, revealing, and noteworthy,

This review is based upon the first edition which was written in 1977.

This biography is fair and gives a vivid detail of not only the life of Tolkien but also the times and events that shaped the man. I would have liked to have seen more into the light of his religion as well as the depth of his relationships particularly with Lewis,Dyson, and Williams.

I have to say that the ending had me near tears. It is hard to imagine that a man that has brought so much joy and creativity into the world that he would have died on a bed of loneliness. It was also sad for me to hear that the relationship between him and C.S. Lewis had fallen out and Lewis passed away before there could ever be any "rewrites" to make up for the past trespasses.

All in all this is one of the better biographies out and I will look forward to reading other biographies out there on Tolkien to give a solid comparison to this one.

This biography is well written and very informative. Readers will find important details about JRR Tolkien's life that explains what inspired him to write his books. This is a very realistic and respectful biography of one of the great writers of the 20th century.

This work certainly is the best of the bunch as to the life and times of J.R.R. TOlkien. It is a very ballanced biography, and does indeed point out a few of the short comings of the author, but this is well and good as it is not a chop job of the author and certainly points out strong points far more than his bad. This was one of those biographies I was unable to put down once I started it. I have always held Tolkien's work in very admiration, and this was sort of icing on the cake. Being one of the better authors of the past century, I is good that we have works such as this so that we can get to know the man as well as the man's works. I first read this one over twenty years ago, enjoyed it then and recently enjoyed it again. I highly recommend.

One must feel a little nervous writing a book about so picky and thorough an author as J.R.R. Tolkien. (A man so deeply conservative, one National Review commenter pointed out admiringly, that Shakespeare was too modern for his taste.) But Carpenter creates an honest and enlightening portrait of the reticent scholar. One glimpses the soul of Tolkien in his stories. Here, Carpenter introduces the childhood, school days, love, soldiering, friendships, and linguistic curiosity that helped frame that soul. The book was also somewhat helpful to me for a book I am planning on the spiritual and literary lineage to which Tolkien belonged, along with (I think) Wilhelm Grimm, Andrew Lang, and C. S. Lewis.

Like Lewis, whose friendship with Tolkien owns a chapter here, deep and lasting friendships defined different periods of Tolkien's life. Carpenter describes his school comrades and the interesting romantic story that led to his marriage. (After which the curtain is mostly drawn, no doubt to Tolkien's satisfaction.) One can see from where Bilbo and his dwarves, and Frodo and his comrades, draw their synergy. (And Carpenter also tells us the inside story of the Hobbit and LOTR.) One chapter that I particularly enjoyed was a kind of "day in the life of" walk through a day at Oxford.

I personally would have liked to read more about Tolkien's war experiences, as well as get a deeper feel for his family and spiritual lives. Carpenter touches on these, but perhaps material was not available for a more complete exploration. And no doubt that is what mades this the authorized version. Nevertheless, I felt as if I got to know the man better in this well-written and thoughtful biography.

J.R.R. "Tollers" Tolkien was born in South Africa; as this biography shows, he was moved back to the home of his English parents as a very young child and was not influenced by his native land at all. Carpenter's biography is very strong on the harsh circumstances of young Tolkien's upbringing, particularly the death of his young parents before World War I.

The orphaned Tolkien found solace in the Catholic Church, of which he would be a faithful member for the rest of his life. Carpenter correctly places great emphasis on Tolkien's Catholicism, which is not at all obvious to those who are most familiar with Tolkien by reading his fictional works. Tolkien also found love, and discovered within himself a surpassing love of comparative linguistics. Tolkien's skill with the languages of northern Europe made him more than just a linguist. He became a philologist, a member of a rare subset of linguists who were able to reconstruct the meanings of lost and forgotten words.

Carpenter points out that, for Tolkien, the act of writing fiction was a labor that blended into his philological genius. Eventually Tolkien was able to convince himself that he was, not creating a fantasy world, but rediscovering a world that had always been there, waiting to be re-found and re-written.

This was a fateful act of perception, because one of the grave dangers of fantasy-writing is that the writer will get lost in his or her own ego. Tolkien was able to set himself aside and go exploring, to the delight of readers all over the world.

Underneath much else were Tolkien's hellish experiences in World War I. Already himself an orphan, the young man had to endure the deaths of two of his closest friends in battle. When he would write about the sufferings of fantasy characters in war, real blood and real death lay behind the printed pages.

This is a biography of a man who, superficially, was one of the least egotistical of writers. Carpenter shows the strong feelings and slightly embittered personality behind the facade. Havaing interviewed many members of Tolkien's own friends and family, he has produced a classic work of appreciation.

It is very rare that modern biography truly does justice to the life of its subject. All too often, the subject material is overshadowed by the vain attempts of the author to sensationalize the events in the individual's life without providing much true knowledge about the subject. However, such sensationalistic biography was not undertaken by Humphrey Carpenter, and because of that, we have this most excellent resource on the life and times of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Perhaps the most prominent trait of Carpenter's work is the insight into the effects of various events in Tolkiens life on his literary and scholarly development. Since J.R.R. Tolkien was defined by his Catholic faith, his scholarship, and his writing, this is an important consideration for a biographer. Having been influenced by many sources, it is only appropriate that these be considered for understanding the development of Tolkien's many works throughout his carreer. The effects of his family, schooling, World War I service, his friendships, and his marriage are carefully considered and explained. Furthermore, Carpenter often shows the precise events which inspired the beginning of many of Tolkien's languages and literary works. It is awe-inspiring to feel as though you are there, beside the great scholar, as he discovers these ideas and begins to shape them.

Indeed, for anyone interested in the developments of a great mind, this biography is highly recommended. I believe that one who hasn't even read the works of Tolkien would find this most fulfilling. However, for those who have indeed read Tolkien's works, this biography is nearly a necessary read for beginning to understand how this grand scholar developed.

If you've loved Tolkien's books all your life, and wondered what kind of person it takes to come up with works of genius like The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, this book will be just what you wanted.

Carpenter makes illuminating connections, linking Tolkien's early fascination with languages to the fact that the author first studied languages with his mother (who died while he was quite young). That nostalgic attachment to language led him to a lifetime of study of all sorts of Scandinavian and Germanic myths and epics, which ultimately inspired him to create his own mythology.

Carpenter also mentions that Leaf By Niggle, one of Tolkien's short stories, expressed his own bittersweet feelings about having spent most of his life writing the Silmarillion and Lord Of The Rings; especially given that advancing age made it increasingly unlikely that they would be finished in his lifetime. This was news to me, so I tracked down the story in a secondhand copy of The Tolkien Reader... it was really quite touching.

This is the only biography of Tolkien which I have read. It was good and I enjoyed it, but it feels like something was missing. Carpenter does a fine job of sketching the events of Tolkien's life and there are plenty of quotations from letters and diaries, and I now understand a little more about the actual creation of Tolkien's mythology and the production of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Simarillion . . . and yet, I still feel like I don't know Tolkien that well. The author fails to provide the emotional connection with Tolkien and his world that would make this biography really excellent.

This is the standard biography of Tolkien, and not just because Carpenter had the cooperation of the Tolkien family. He has presented a full picture of Tolkien's life and gets his facts straight. Without a doubt this is the best starting place for discovering the man behind the myth.

On the other hand, there is a certain remoteness and lack of focus that prevents me from giving the book 5 stars. In trying to capture all facets of the man, Carpenter prevents any one from shing out brightly. The work is adequate on facts (the best I've seen) but short on insight. Not that biographies benefit from the drawing of daring conclusions from slender evidence, but after having read this one, one doesn't feel that one has gotten to know Tolkien better.