The Life and Works of J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter (1977)

Amazon Customer: Excellent well thought out description of JRR Tolkiens life and inner workings of his literary mind.
Gave me a much better understanding of the intricate Worlds of JRR Tolkien !

United States on Aug 20, 2023

Trudy M.: I bought this for my 36 year-old son as requested. He said it is a great book on Tolkein. He has read many.

United States on May 30, 2023

PeteMK: I have been a fan of Tolkien since I first read Lord of the Rings when I was about 17 (I had to borrow the three hardback volumes from the library). I have never read his biography, until now. This is by a biographer who met Tolkien and had cooperation from his family and friends. It is a delightful insight to the life of the great man.

United Kingdom on May 04, 2023

greasey: I thought this biography of Tolkien would be great as I am such a great fan of his work, but was disappointed. There was very little about his background, his time in World War 1 taking part in the battle of the Somme and catching trench fever, that invalided him out of the war.
There was also very little on how he wrote the Hobbit too, and as a result found this book to be too dry and too short. Sure it has a timeline at the back and a simplified family tree of Tolkien, but it isn't very comprehensive and doesn't go back very far, only mentioning that it goes back to Saxony in Germany. Overall only 3 stars out of 5.

United Kingdom on Oct 16, 2022

bookstoregal: Tolkien led a very interesting life, which I had not read about before. I enjoyed this book, except for the speculation about certain things in his life. Just give me the facts! 😊

United States on Apr 27, 2022

indiejones: I picked up this biography in preparation for the new Tolkien movie and while I still haven't seen the film, I have read this book and let me tell you: everything you ever wanted to know about JRR Tolkien is in here! Look no further for you have found your eternal source of facts and anecdotes on the man himself.
This biography explores Tolkien's life from his birth (and beyond, as you will also get to know about his parents) to his death and everything in between and it manages to do so in a fun, interesting way, never letting you fall asleep, never boring you with too many numbers or dates or facts.

Carpenter's account of the story of Tolkien is not only a perfect start for someone who hasn't read a biography yet and might be scared of doing so, it also gives a great insight into who this man was, how he was like and what it was that he was doing exactly.
Do I remember when Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit was published? No, and although the book provides its readers with the correct dates, that's not what is important to me.
What's important to me is the small things that I took from it. That Tolkien spoke fluent Greek in his debate club in secondary school...

Germany on Jul 06, 2019

Literature Fiend: Firstly, I’ve got to say that J.R.R. Tolkien by Humphry Carpenter was a real eye-opening biography. I was completely in the dark going into this book, having never read the Silmarillion, The Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings (I know, I know. Don’t shoot!!!) but left in awe of his achievements both academically and creatively.

It’s great to see that Carpenter doesn’t shy away from the truth and paints Tolkien as a highly intelligent, if not, slightly eccentric man. It was inspiring to see how the creation of Middle Earth and its history/language was basically a lifelong work.

The book takes you quite swiftly through Tolkien’s childhood in Birmingham and South Africa, then touches on his time as a soldier in WW1, Oxford as a student and teacher, his writing struggles, philologist, to his lifelong marriage.

One thing I enjoyed reading about was his life as an English Professor, in which, Tolkien would often meet with his peer group to smoke and read aloud the Bard poems in Old Norse.

I mean, who doesn’t, right?

Among these peers was C.S. Lewis who, most famously, wrote the Narnia Books for children.

I was totally absorbed in this...

United Kingdom on Jul 02, 2019

ZyPhReX: With his high fantasy literature, J.R.R. Tolkien has provided the tinder that stokes the imagination of millions. His books are known around the world, and for great reason. Having read some of his work myself, thought it prudent to see what events provided him with the impetus to create a whole mythology to boot.

In that sense, J.R.R. Tolkien – A Biography by Humphrey Carter, which was featured in the March Book Haul, provides some illumination into the underlying reasons that drove Tolkien to write what he wrote and create what he did.

The biography is split up into 8 parts, some of which are more interesting than others. Admittedly, autobiographies can run quite dry many times, but this still did a reasonable job of showing us Tolkien in his most authentic form.

Tolkien’s growth, his early years, his friendship with C.S. Lewis, and even his penchant for countless revisions are all catalogued within the book. It was particularly interesting to see what a perfectionist Tolkien was. In a sense, this allowed Tolkien to fine tune his writing process while at the same time expanding his Legendarium.

The Legendarium was created by Tolkien to serve as...

United States on May 31, 2017

A.J.Bradley: I have to confess, other than his essay on fairy stories, I have never been able to warm to Tolkien's writings. Nor those of C.S. Lewis. I have not been able to get past about page three of 'The Hobbit' - although I have learned to live with a framed poster for a 1987 exhibition at Oxford on my sitting-room wall for the past fourteen years. My wife is a fan.
To rewind: I first heard the opening paragraph of 'The Hobbit' read out loud by a trendy little drama teacher at school ("Call me Diane"), and I thought: "Hello, I'm not going to like this". Ian Fleming was more my thing at the time, you understand (1972?) Fast forward: college in the mid-80s and I am being taught English by Michael Tolkien's first wife (not Tolkien's son, his grandson), and we get an awful lot about the old chap. Before that, I'm afraid, I'd become aware that he was the favourite reading of hippies, druggies, tree-huggers, bunny-huggers; that spineless rabble.
Yet, I've become fascinated by the man; hence, wanting to read a decent biography. This is decent enough, but ultimately disappointing. Tolkien - aside from The Somme - appears to have lived in a kind of academic bubble. We find out that he didn't...

United Kingdom on Nov 14, 2014

T. Hooker: Who was J.R.R. Tolkien? This question has been posed by many over the years, which may explain the plethora of books and articles written about him (especially in light of the Lord of the Rings movies some ten years ago).

In 2010, I read Humphrey Carpenter's The Inklings. I've posted my review of that elsewhere on this site. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography is of equal quality to that later work, though the primary focus here is on the creator of Middle Earth.

The following are among the "new" insights I found in this work:
1. Edith Tolkien, though a friend of Joy Davidman, felt jealousy over her husband's devotion to C.S. Lewis (perhaps in part because "Jack" was socially awkward in her presence).
2. Though a perfectionist, J.R.R. Tolkien often experienced difficulty in focusing on a given task (which lead to frequent publication delays).
3. Tolkien disliked the adaptation of the Catholic Mass into the vernacular from Latin.
4. Tolkien's mother knew Latin, French, and German, and he related most closely with her side of the family. He and his brother were homeschooled by their mom at a young age, and Tolkien could even read by the age of four.
5. Tolkien...

United States on Jul 05, 2012