The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien is a collection of letters, letter fragments, letter drafts, and endnotes by J.R.R. Tolkien. The first edition contained 354 entries, it was edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, and was published in 1981.
The Letters is considered an autobiography of Tolkien, since he himself didn't write one. And it is widely recognized as an indispensable book of resource for both Tolkien scholars and fans, as it contains much information and insights on his literary works and personal life.
An index has been provided by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull since 1995.
A revised and expanded edition was published on 9 November, 2023. The new edition includes 154 new entries, bringing the total number of letters to 508.
Contents
The selection of 354 letters in the original edition dates from October 1914, when Tolkien was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, to August 29 1973, four days before his death.
The letters can be roughly divided in four categories:
- Personal letters to Edith Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien and his other children
- Letters about Tolkien's career as a professor of Anglo-Saxon
- Letters to his publishers at Allen and Unwin explaining his failing to meet the deadline and related topics
- Letters about Middle-earth
The last category is especially of interest to Tolkien fans, as it provides a lot of information about Middle-earth which cannot be found elsewhere in the works published by Tolkien himself. It is remarked thus:
Revised and Expanded edition
The Revised and Expanded edition was published on 9 November, 2023, by HarperCollins. In this edition 154 previously unseen letters have been added, and 45 existing letters updated and extended. Now the total number of entries has increased from 354 to 508, and page number from 463 to 720.
In essence it is not a "second edition", but a "fully restored first edition". As noted by the editor that, during the publication of the first edition, much of the original content had to be cut out due to the printing limitations of the time. Thus, this new edition offers an opportunity to restore all that was lost, and represents what the original editors had envisioned the book to be.
Carpenter's numbering system is kept, while the new letters are inserted in their due places with a lowercase letter, e.g. letter 18a is placed between letters 18 and 19.
It won the Tolkien Society Award for best book in 2024.
From the publisher
Publication history and gallery
UK editions
- George Allen and Unwin, hardcover (1981), pp. 463. ISBN 0048260053 - (first edition)
- Unwin Paperbacks, paperback (1990), ISBN 0044406649
- HarperCollins paperback (1995), pp. 480. ISBN 0261102656
- — 1995 paperback edition, reset in 2006
- HarperCollins hardcover (2023), pp. 720. ISBN 0008628769 - (expanded edition)
- HarperCollins paperback (2025), ISBN 0008628807
- HarperCollins hardcover in slipcase (2026), ISBN 0008628777
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 30/05/2026.
