In the summer of 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien, then only thirty-three years old and a lecturer at Leeds University, took a significant step in his academic career by applying for the prestigious Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University…

Addressed to Mrs. E.M. Wright, the wife of his former Oxford mentor Joseph Wright, this correspondence not only reflects on his scholarly activities but also shares a personal snapshot of his family life during a trying time.

On a somber August day in 1916, amidst the devastating battles of the Somme, J.R.R. Tolkien pens a deeply introspective letter to his friend Geoffrey Bache Smith. Dated August 12, this letter…