The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien is a selection of J. R. R. Tolkien's letters published in 1981, edited by Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter assisted by Christopher Tolkien. The selection contains 354 letters, dating between October 1914, when Tolkien was an undergraduate at Oxford, and 29 August 1973, four days before his death. The letters can be roughly divided in four categories: The last category is especially of interest to Tolkien fans, as it provides a lot of information about Middle-earth which cannot be found anywhere in the works published by Tolkien
The History of The Lord of the Rings The History of The Lord of the Rings The History of The Lord of the Rings is a four-volume work by Christopher Tolkien published between 1988 and 1992 that documents the process of J. R. R. Tolkien's writing of "The Lord of the Rings". The "History" is also numbered as volumes six to nine of "The History of Middle-earth" ("HoME", as below). Some information concerning the appendices and a soon-abandoned sequel to the novel can also be found in volume twelve, "The Peoples of Middle-earth". The volumes include: The first volume of "The History" encompasses three initial stages of composition