J. R. R. Tolkien in his lifetime, and was sometimes harshly disapproving. In 1946, he rejected suggestions for illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of "The Hobbit" as "too Disnified ... Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of". Tolkien was sceptical of the emerging Tolkien fandom in the United States, and in 1954 he returned proposals for the dust jackets of the American edition of "The Lord of the Rings": He had dismissed dramatic representations of fantasy in his essay "On Fairy-Stories", first presented in 1939: Tolkien
Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien Fairy Stories" is of some importance to the literary genres of fantasy or mythopoeia. His 1930 lecture "A Secret Vice" addressed artistic languages at a time when the topic was of very limited visibility compared to the utilitarian projects of auxiliary languages. His 1955 valedictory lecture "English and Welsh" expounds upon his philosophy of language, his notion of native language and his views on linguistic aesthetics (c.f. "cellar door"). Smith (2007) is a monograph on Tolkien's philosophy of language. Tolkien fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially of the Middle-earth