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This Guide documents and indexes known letters to, from and about J. R. R. Tolkien. The corpus of Tolkien's letters is vast, but references have previously been spread across hundreds of books, catalogues and archives. New information and new features are being added regularly to continually improve this Guide.
The Guide is meant to help answer questions such as - which archive or reference holds the original letter? What is the letter about? Where has the letter been quoted or reproduced?
This Guide does not publish the contents or photographs of the letters as they are all under copyright by the author(s). In the case of letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien, the copyright belongs with the Tolkien Estate, and they must be contacted for permission to quote from or reproduce Tolkien's letters. For more information, see www.tolkienestate.com/frequently-asked-questions-and-links/
This guide was nominated in the 2026 Tolkien Society Award in the Best Online Content category.
Do you have information about a letter or own an unpublished letter that you feel should be in this Guide? Please Contact Us, we would love to hear from you.
Additional Links relating to this Guide
With the recent release of the revised and expanded Letters, we have put together this quick pdf documenting the changes made between the original edition and the new revised edition.
Brought to you by onthetrail, Urulókë, Trotter, Mr. Underhill and Lord of the Mark.
To get started, click one of the green buttons below to see a filtered set of letters, or type in any search query to find exactly what you are looking for.
The revised and expanded edition of Carpenter's Letters was released in 2023 in the UK (store link) and USA (store link). We have collected a list of errata for the revised and expanded edition of Letters here.
(3 letters match)
Tolkien applies for the position of 'Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University'. He describes his schooling and his time at Leeds Univ...
Tolkien had gone to bed early, and stayed there for nearly 10 hours, which he says has made him feel "worn out". He mentions that he had recei...
Tolkien writes a long letter to Michael George who is very worried about which degree to study for at Oxford. History, which his father took, or English...
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Guide to Tolkien's Letters
Professor Tolkien's Desk © 2024 Miriam Ellis, exclusively for TolkienGuide.comMiriam and Urulókë spent a few months collecting exhibition and photographic evidence of material that Tolkien owned or used - everything in this illustration (barring the flowers) is accurate, though they likely never were arranged exactly in this manner.[1]
This Guide documents and indexes known letters to, from and about J. R. R. Tolkien. The corpus of Tolkien's letters is vast, but references have previously been spread across hundreds of books, catalogues and archives. New information and new features are being added regularly to continually improve this Guide.
The Guide is meant to help answer questions such as - which archive or reference holds the original letter? What is the letter about? Where has the letter been quoted or reproduced?
This Guide does not publish the contents or photographs of the letters as they are all under copyright by the author(s). In the case of letters written by J.R.R. Tolkien, the copyright belongs with the Tolkien Estate, and they must be contacted for permission to quote from or reproduce Tolkien's letters. For more information, see www.tolkienestate.com/frequently-asked-questions-and-links/
This guide was nominated in the 2026 Tolkien Society Award in the Best Online Content category.
Do you have information about a letter or own an unpublished letter that you feel should be in this Guide? Please Contact Us, we would love to hear from you.
Additional Links relating to this Guide
With the recent release of the revised and expanded Letters, we have put together this quick pdf documenting the changes made between the original edition and the new revised edition.
Brought to you by onthetrail, Urulókë, Trotter, Mr. Underhill and Lord of the Mark.
To get started, click one of the green buttons below to see a filtered set of letters, or type in any search query to find exactly what you are looking for.
The revised and expanded edition of Carpenter's Letters was released in 2023 in the UK (store link) and USA (store link). We have collected a list of errata for the revised and expanded edition of Letters here.
1 Miriam and Urulókë spent a few months collecting exhibition and photographic evidence of material that Tolkien owned or used - everything in this illustration (barring the flowers) is accurate, though they likely never were arranged exactly in this manner. ↩
(3 letters match)
Letters Sent On This Day
27 June 1925
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J.R.R. Tolkien to [University of Oxford Electors]
#7
Carpenter #7
Tolkien applies for the position of 'Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University'. He describes his schooling and his time at Leeds Univ...
27 June 1944
J.R.R. Tolkien to Christopher Tolkien
#1395
Carpenter #73a
Tolkien had gone to bed early, and stayed there for nearly 10 hours, which he says has made him feel "worn out". He mentions that he had recei...
27 June 1960
J.R.R. Tolkien to Michael George Tolkien
#2665
Tolkien writes a long letter to Michael George who is very worried about which degree to study for at Oxford. History, which his father took, or English...
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11