George Sayer

George Sydney Benedict Sayer (born June 1914 in Bradfield, Berkshire, England) was a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, and close friend and biographer of Tolkien's close friend, C. S. Lewis. He authored Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times, released in 1988.
Sayer met Tolkien through Lewis, and in 1952 made one of very few recordings of Tolkien singing and reading, from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Sayer received a typescript of the latter book from Tolkien two years before its publication.Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond's The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: II. Reader's Guide, pg. 876 Sayer then aided Tolkien in making a brief summary of The Lord of the Rings for its promotion, sent to publishers Allen and Unwin, who shortened it further.Hammond & Scull, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, pg. xxxiv
Sayer had met Lewis in 1934 at Magdalen College, Oxford, as Lewis was his tutor in English studies. In 1945, Sayer began teaching English himself at Malvern College in Worcestershire, and became head of its English Department in 1949. After about 1948, Lewis, his brother Warren, Sayer, and Tolkien often walked together.Mike Foster, ""That most unselfish man": George Sayer, 1914-2005: pupil, biographer, and friend of Inklings" in Mythlore, vol. 26, 2008 Sayer's recollections of much of Tolkien's personality and idiosyncracies are included in Tolkien: A Celebration (1998), edited by Joseph Pearce, and in Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1995).
The Marion E. Wade Center of Wheaton College, Illinois, holds some of his manuscripts.
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Category:Real people
Category:Friends of J.R.R. Tolkien
Category:English individuals