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…

In these early letters to Edith Bratt, J.R.R. Tolkien provides a deeply personal look at his life during the formative years of 1914 to 1916. While Tolkien’s mythology, language invention, and future writings would…

Today we embark on our first deep dive into J.R.R. Tolkien’s published letters—how exciting! We start with a very special one—Letter No. 1: To Edith Bratt, written in October 1914 while Tolkien was in his final year at Oxford.