Perspective

Humphrey Carpenter was a British author and biographer who was noted for his works involving many celebrated authors from J.R.R. Tolkien to W.H. Auden to Ezra Pound to Evelyn Waugh. In addition to writing biographies, Carpenter was also a jazz musician, founder of a children's theater troupe and a highly regarded radio broadcaster. Carpenter's reputation preceded him when he met with Tolkien in 1967. It is not recorded how their first meeting came about but Carpenter ended up being one of the few people to have access to Tolkien's insights, personal accounts, and private papers.

It is clear that Carpenter was well versed in Tolkien's life before he began to write the biography as it is written with feeling and does not have the feel of an unemotional work or textbook. The perspective in the biography is one of a man who is not only a...