The Line Will Be Drawn Tonight, 1 8. Acknowledgments 9. Copyright # Guide 1. Cover 2. Contents 3. Start of content ## Pagebreaks of the print version 1. i 2. ii 3. iii 4. iv 5. v 6. vi 7. vii 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 1. ii 2. iii 3. iv 4. v 5. vi 6. vii 7. viii 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. gates and borders J. R. R. Tolkien Copyright Page Gates and Borders: J. R. R. Tolkien: A Reader's Guide I. Introduction J. R. R. TOLKIEN, regarded by many as the greatest twentieth-century writer of the English language, is the author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and the Children of Hurin. These seven Middle-earth novels are among the most cherished works of fiction in the English language. Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892, during a period of great upheaval: the Anglo-Boer War and its long aftermath. In its first decade the century was also a period of enormous literary achievement, a time of great excitement, vitality, and optimism. A century later we are witnessing a similar era of literary achievement and excitement, this time in the field of science fiction. In this period The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (hereafter abbreviated as The Lord of the Rings), with their emphasis on adventure and imaginative journeys, belong to a literary genre that is very popular and flourishing. Tolkien was a professor in English Literature at Oxford University, a holder of the offices of Chaucer and Nevill Professor of English Literature, and a fellow of the English faculty of Merton College, all of which have played significant roles in his writing. He died in 1973. In the following introduction I examine the elements of Tolkien's writing that have led to his being considered as one of the world's greatest novelists. In the first part of this book I offer a general overview of Tolkien's life and writings. In part II I list the books, letters, and essays that are the primary sources for a reader's understanding of Tolkien. And in part III I offer a list of significant Tolkien editions and translations that are available in the market today. The history of Tolkien's reputation is interesting, for it has progressed in stages and is part of a phenomenon shared by other great modern writers, such as Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, and the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, each of whom produced masterpieces and then sank into obscurity or relative obscurity. Other writers in the early modernist period, such as Walter Benjamin and Ezra Pound, are, in a sense, similar to Tolkien in that they lived to produce a relatively small body of work. For this reason their popularity waxed and waned more than did Tolkien's. Benjamin, for example, died in 1940 at the age of sixty-one and never enjoyed the success Tolkien enjoyed after publishing The Lord of the Rings. The early modernists were the first writers to enjoy the kind of commercial success that we see now. But they also enjoyed the kind of critical neglect that writers tend to avoid. Benjamin, like Tolkien, is one of the twentieth century's most interesting and intelligent writers, and all of the great figures from this period are among our cultural treasures. # ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is the result of a lifetime of learning about the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and a lifetime's experience of the vicissitudes of academic life. I would like to thank the libraries and individuals listed below for their help, encouragement, and support: The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Center for the Advanced Study of Literature at the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia Press, and Oxford University Press, where the edition is now under consideration. J. R. R. Tolkien Archive at Merton College Library, Oxford University; The Merton College Archives; The Bodleian Library; D. Allen & Unwin; J. R. R. Tolkien Societies of England and Wales; Wadham College Library; the Tolkien Society; the British Library; and many others. My family, friends, and students. The editors of this book, especially Thomas A. Shippee, Robert P. Boyer, Christopher F. Slatsky, Charles W. Johnson, and John F. Collins. My dear friend and colleague at the University of Virginia, John B. Vlach, with whom this book began, who first suggested the project to me, and whose help and support have been vital. I extend my thanks to all the persons listed above who in one way or another were responsible for this book. I have set before me a task greater than I can accomplish: the enunciation in our own tongue of a system of philosophy. This will, I know, require a greater genius than any yet displayed among us, or perhaps in the world; and I have no pretension to it. The times and events are unpropitious; and great, but very different, efforts, will be required to set the world right. HOBBES, Leviathan, xiii, xxviii # 1. # Introduction One afternoon in December of 1991 I opened a newspaper and read that J. R. R. Tolkien, whose books have been on the shelves of my home since my childhood, had died. The news brought me a kind of shock, the more so because I could find no words to express my feelings in words. There was no adequate way for me to express the sorrow I felt for this sudden end, and still feel when I think about it, after a great deal of time has passed. On the other hand, there was also something uplifting in his death, an assurance that this is how things