"The Downsters And The Critics"

[mark12_30]

*TOLKIEN'S WORKS*:

A frequently asked question is "I finished the Trilogy, what other Tolkien books should I read?" Many have answered this question.
Here is a link to the
Tolkien Book List at the BarrowDowns.

Here is a link to Palm Tolkien's bibliography of Tolkien's own works. It may be less than complete but it's a good place to start:Palm Tolkien's bibliography of Tolkien's works

"TolkBiB.de is striving to list all books published by or about J.R.R. Tolkien. " They're not there yet, but it's a noble undertaking...
TolkBiB.de

Speaking of reading the Legendarium, here is a link to burrahobbit's Rant

And here is a link to lindil's Legendarium challenge:the HoM-E/UT Society ~ following the Legendarium from c.1915 - 1972

EDIT:
Alas, alas.... when the forum went to the new VB revision, the old links no longer work. And I cannot take the time to update them today... Try searching on the title, until I can make time to fix them. I will move links above this banner as I update them.

lindil's list of abbreviations and acronyms


*REVIEWS / CRITICISM OF TOLKIEN'S WORKS*:
Here are a few thread links for starters:

Biography recommendations

David Day: Literary Burglar?

Legendarium/ David Day books

Supplementary literature

Diamond18 provides an astute review of Middle-Earth For Dummies.

davem wrote a great review here: Tolkien & the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth" by John Garth.

Bethberry began this topic
He said, she said: where the critics led which was immediately and completely sidetracked. However she provides a link to a PDF document which contains an exhaustive bibliography of critical publications on Tolkien and his work. The discussion in the article is worthwhile reading. Scanning the list of available works makes me wish I didn't have a day-job.

In Critical Essays on Tolkien several book titles are tossed about. Does anybody have reviews for these books?

***********

Incidentally, the more I search, the more I am convinced of the need for this thread. The books forum abounds with nebulous thread titles which sound promising but deliver little solid guidance. Title searches on Shippey, Carpenter, and Biography also yielded little guidance.

Clear signposts are definitely needed.

In that vein, if anyone has already written (or would like to write) reviews on the following basics, please link to them (or post them) here:

Flieger: Splintered Light,
Flieger: A Question of Time
Tolkien's Legendarium, edited by Flieger and Hostetter.
Pearce's (ed) Tolkien: A Celebration
Birzer's Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth
Lobdell's (ed) A Tolkien Compass.
Shippey's Author of the Century.

davem helpfully provides links to Amazon for:
Proceedings of the 1992 Tolkien Conference
JRR Tolkien & his Literary Reasonances
Celebrating Middle Earth
(I couldn't talk you into reviewing those, could I, davem?)

Carpenter: J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography
Anderson's Annotated Hobbit, first and second editions

...and all the other multitudinous works which I do not have, but you do...

Another work which I somehow feel belongs on this list, although it was written by Tolkien himself, is:
Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien as compiled and edited by Humprey Carpenter.
He functions in these letters as his own critic.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 1:10 AM February 03, 2004: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]