Perspective

JRR Tolkien was a 20th century English man. He died in September of 1973 at the age of 81 years. There are a few ways in which his perspective did not change during the course of his life. He was male, English, 20th century and living in a predominantly Christian English speaking country his whole life. Then there were a number of factors that changed his perspective. One of these was the most natural of all: his age. As he grew, his own body and life experience grew along with him.

The first letters begin with a young man in love having just headed off into the world of grown men. He is quite luckily in that there is a girl - a young woman his own age actually, whom he loves so much that when subjected to a three-year long separation instead of either simply going off with another...