Designed to be the essential reference works for all readers
and students, these volumes present the most thorough analysis
possible of Tolkien''s work within the important context of his
life. The Reader''s Guide includes brief but comprehensive
alphabetical entries on a wide range of topics, including a who''s
who of important persons, a guide to places and institutions,
details concerning Tolkien''s source material, information about the
political and social upheavals through which the author lived, the
importance of his social circle, his service as an infantryman in
World War I -- even information on the critical reaction to his
work and the "Tolkien cult." The Chronology details the parallel
evolutions of Tolkien''s works and his academic and personal life in
minute detail. Spanning the entirety of his long life including
nearly sixty years of active labor on his Middle-earth creations,
and drawing on such contemporary sources as school records, war
service files, biographies, correspondence, the letters of his
close friend C. S. Lewis, and the diaries of W. H. Lewis, this book
will be an invaluable resource for those who wish to gain a
complete understanding of Tolkien''s status as a giant of
twentieth-century literature.