The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien is a collection published in 1981 of 354 selected letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien over the course of his lifetime, which were edited where necessary and compiled by Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter, with the help of Christopher Tolkien. The selection contains 354 letters dates between October 1914 when Tolkien was an undergraduate at Oxford and August 29, 1973; four days before his death.
==Formation==
Humphrey Carpenter first collected and transcribed all the letters and made the initial selection based upon that. Then Christopher Tolkien commented upon his work and made various suggestions for changes, which were then discussed among them and adopted with various emendations. They then found it necessary to reduce the text quite severely for consideration of space. Humphrey then proposed the initial cuts, on which Christopher again made various suggestions, after which they came up with a final procedure needed for publication.
==Contents==
*Introduction
*Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
*Notes
*Index
==Types of letters==
The 354 letters can be roughly divided into four categories:
*Personal letters to his family, namely to his wife Edith Tolkien, his son Christopher Tolkien and all his other children and even some grandchildren.
*Letters concerning his career as a professor of Anglo-Saxon.
*Letters send to his publishers Allen & Unwin explaining his often continued failing to meet deadlines and other topics related to publishing a book and
*Letters about Middle-earth, this category is for obvious reasons the most interesting to Tolkien fans as it provides a lot of information about Middle-earth which at the time of publishing could not be found anywhere else in the then published works by Tolkien himself and his then posthumously published work by his son Christopher.
==Examples==
In letters 29 & 30, we find out that a German translation of The Hobbit was being negotiated in 1938. The German firm inquired whether Tolkien was of 'arisch' (Aryan) origin. Tolkien was infuriated by this, and wrote two letters as a response. In the first one Tolkien apparently refused to give any declaration whatsoever of his origin and in the second one he proudly protested on the inquiry and, among other things, replied that "... I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted [Jewish] people". He gave his editor the choice on which reply to use. This second letter is the only one preserved, and it is probable that the first one was sent.
==Revised and Expanded Edition==
On November 9 of the year 2023, HarperCollins published the Revised and Expanded Edition of the book, featuring 154 unpublished letters as well as updates and extensions to 45 existing letters. This edition restored content originally cut out from the first edition because of printing limitations.
==Navigation==
 
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Die Briewe van J. R. R. Tolkien
Albanian 	Letrat e J. R. R. Tolkien
Amharic 	ጄ አር አር ጦልኪአን ደብዳቤዎች
Arabic 	رسائل من جون ر. تولكين
Armenian 	Ջոն Ռոնալդ Ռուել Թոլքին Տառերը ?
Azerbaijani 	J. R. R. Tolkien Məktubları
Basque 	J. R. R. Tolkienen Gutunak
Belarusian Cyrillic	Лісты Толкіна
Bengali 	জজে. আর. আর. টলকিন বর্ণ
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Писмата на Й. Р. Р. Толкин
Burmese 	ဂျေ အာ အာ တော်ကီးန် စာလုံးများ
Catalan 	Les cartes de J. R. R. Tolkien
Cebuano 	Ang Sulat ni J. R. R. Tolkien
Corsican 	U Lettres di J. R. R. Tolkien
Croatian 	Pisma od J. R. R. Tolkina
Czech 	Dopisy J. R. R. Tolkien
Danish 	J. R. R. Tolkiens breve
Dutch 	De Brieven van J.R.R. Tolkien
Esperanto 	La Leteroj de J. R. R. Tolkien
Estonian 	Kirjad kohta J. R. R. Tolkien
Filipino 	Ang Sulat ng J. R. R. Tolkien
Finnish 	J. R. R. Tolkienin kirjaimet
French 	Les lettres de J. R. R. Tolkien
Galician 	As cartas de J. R. R. Tolkien
Georgian 	ჯ. რ. რ. ტოლკინის წერილები
German 	J. R. R. Tolkien Briefe
Greek 	Οι επιστολές του Τζ. Ρ. Ρ. Τόλκιν
Gujarati 	જે.આર. આર. ટોલ્કિએનનાં પત્રો
Hausa 	Wasikun J. R. R. Tolkien
Hebrew 	מכתבי ר 'ר' טולקין
Hindi 	जे॰आर॰आर॰ टोल्किन के पत्र
Hungarian 	J. R. R. Tolkien levelei
Icelandic 	Bréfum af J. R. R. Tolkien
Indonesian 	Huruf-huruf J. R. R. Tolkien
Irish Gaelic 	Na Litreacha de J. R. R. Tolkien
Italian 	Le lettere di J. R. R. Tolkien
Japanese 	J・R・R・トールキンの手紙
Javanese 	Ing Huruf saka J. R. R. Tolkien
Kannada 	ದಿ ಲೆಟರ್ಸ್ ಆಫ್ ಜೆ. ಆರ್. ಆರ್. ಟೋಲ್ಕಿನ್
Kazakh 	J. Р. Р. хаттар Толкиеннің (Cyrillic) J. R. R. xattar Tolkïenniñ (Latin)
Korean 	J. R. R. 톨킨의 편지
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Ж. Р. Р. Толкин каттар
Latin 	Literae J. R. R. Tolkien
Latvian 	Vēstulēm no J. R. R. Tolkien
Lithuanian 	J. R. R. Tolkino raidės
Macedonian Cyrillic	Писмата на Ј Р Р Толкин
Malaysian 	Huruf-huruf J. R. R. Tolkien
Maltese 	Il Ittri ta 'J. R. R. Tolkien
Maori 	Ko nga Reta a J. R. R. Tolkien
Marathi 	जे.आर.आर. टॉल्कीन: पत्रे
Mongolian Cyrillic 	J. Р. Р. Толкиэн нь Захидал
Nepalese 	जे आर आर टोल्किएन को पत्र ?
Norwegian 	Bokstavene av J. R. R. Tolkien
Persian 	جی. آر. آر. تالکین نامه ها
Polish 	Listy J. R. R. Tolkiena
Portuguese 	As Cartas de J. R. R. Tolkien
Punjabi 	ਜੇ.ਆਰ.ਆਰ. ਟੌਕਲਿਕ ਅੱਖਰ
Romanian 	Scrisorile lui J. R. R. Tolkien
Russian 	Письма Дж. Р. Р. Толкина
Samoan 	O Mataitusi o le J. R. R. Tolkien
Sesotho 	Ea Mangolo a J. R. R. Tolkien
Scottish Gaelic 	Litrichean de J. R. R. Tolkien
Serbian 	Тхе Леттерс од Ј. Р. Р. Толкиен (Cyrillic) Pisma od J. R. R. Tolkien (Latin)
Sinhalese 	ජේ.ආර්.ආර්. ටෝල්කීන් අකුරු
Slovak 	Listy J. R. R. Tolkiena
Slovenian 	Črke J. R. R. Tolkien
Spanish 	Las cartas de J. R. R. Tolkien
Sundanese 	Nu Sastra Sunda tina J. R. R. Tolkien
Swahili 	Barua ya J. R. R. Tolkien
Swedish 	Brev av J. R. R. Tolkien
Tamil 	ஜே. ஆர். ஆர். டோல்கீன் எழுத்துமூலங்கள்
Telugu 	జె.ఆర్.ఆర్.టోల్కీన్ ది లెటర్స్ ఆఫ్
Thai 	จดหมายจากเจ. อาร์. อาร์. โทลคีน ?
Turkish 	J. R. R. Tolkien'in Mektupları
Turkmen 	J. R. R. Tolkieniň Hatlary
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	листи Толкіна
Uzbek 	Ж. Р. Р. Толкиенъин мактуби (Cyrillic) J. R. R. Tolkien'in maktubi (Latin)
Vietnamese 	Các chữ cái của J. R. R. Tolkien
Welsh 	Mae Llythyrau J. R. R. Tolkien
de:J. R. R. Tolkien Briefe
fr:Lettres
it:Lettere (1914-1973)
pl:Listy
ru:Письма
Category:The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Category:Reference works
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