Lloyd finds Carpenter's account of Tolkien's youth 'gripping and astounding', and extremely good on his friendships and Catholicism.

Lloyd reviewed the book for the Sewanee Review in 1978, writing that Carpenter 'reveals an affecting remarkable life without interposing between reader and subject personal predilections or self-advertisement.' Lloyd states that the effect is to present Tolkien as a 'very ordinary, even obscure, professor.' He cites, too, Carpenter's mention that Tolkien 'disapproved of biography as an aid to literary appreciation,' agreeing that this may have been correct, with the two famous works telling what readers most need to know about Tolkien, but adding that it is helpful to know that Tolkien liked ordinary working men, like the batmen who served officers in the First World War trenches. Fry reviewed the book for Christianity & Literature, and Anthea Lawson reviewed it for The Observer in 2002. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that even though the biography came out before most of the posthumous publications edited by Christopher Tolkien, 'it has worn very well,' telling of Tolkien's 'sad and traumatic youth' and providing good coverage of his dealings with C. It was first published in London by George Allen & Unwin, then in the United States by Houghton Mifflin Company. Tolkien provides the background and details of the life of a. Ive loved The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Seller Rating: Contact seller BookFirst Edition Used - HardcoverCondition: Almost Like New US 15. Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Excellent biography of a remarkable individual. Tolkien: The Authorized Biography Carpenter, Humphrey Published byHoughton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts, 1977 ISBN 10: 0395253608ISBN 13: 9780395253601 Seller: Kenneth A. It is called the 'authorized biography' of J. Tolkien: A Biography, written by Humphrey Carpenter, was first published in 1977.

Tolkien the authorized biography