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
R. J. Hopper R. J. Hopper Robert John Hopper, FSA (1910 – 3 July 1987), known as R. J. Hopper, was an archaeologist and historian of Ancient Greece. He was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Sheffield. He was Dean of the university's Faculty of Arts from 1967 to 1970. Hopper was born on 13 August 1910. He studied classics at the University College of Swansea. He was then awarded a scholarship, the Rhonda studentship, to study at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. There, he completed the diploma in classical archaeology and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in classics. Hopper