Tolkien and the Great War

The Threshold of Middle-Earth

John Garth

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English

Harper Collins
01 June 2011

Biography; Biography: general; Biography: literary; Literary companions; Science fiction; Fantasy

* TOLKIEN
* Now a major motion pictureAcclaimed as ‘the best book about Tolkien’, this award-winning biography explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

“To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 … by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.”

So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil.

John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth’s enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generation. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day.

This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.

By: John Garth
Imprint: Harper Collins
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 310g
ISBN: 9780007119530
ISBN 10: 0007119534
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 01 June 2011
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Author Website: http://www.johngarth.co.uk

John Garth is a Tolkien expert who has become acknowledged as the authority on Tolkien's wartime experiences, having appeared on The South Bank Show, on the Lord of the Rings DVDs and other documentaries about Tolkien. He studied English at Oxford University and spent five years researching and writing this book. He works as a freelance newspaper journalist in Oxford.

Reviews for Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

Very much the best book about JRR Tolkien that has yet been written. Even if you are not a Lord of the Rings fan, I commend this book to you. It is all so interesting in itself, and I have rarely read a book which so intelligently graphed the relation between a writer's inner life and his outward circumstances. A.N.Wilson, Evening Standard A highly intelligent book exploring Tolkien's personal experience of the First World War! Garth displays impressive skills both as a researcher and writer. Max Hastings Garth's brilliantly argued study convincinly portrays Tolkien in an entirely different leagues from other, more familiar writers on war. Daily Mail