By Predictable Matt
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Tolkien Criticism - Richard West or Judith Johnson? (or both!)

21 Mar, 2023
2023-3-21 12:33:36 PM UTC

Does anyone have any experience/insight into the extent to which these two books cover reviews of Tolkien's works from newspapers, periodicals and the like?

- Tolkien Criticism: An Annotated Checklist by Richard West

- J.R.R. Tolkien: Six Decades of Criticism by Judith Johnson

I found that there is a section in the West book on Book Reviews, though I don't know how long/substantive. Not sure at all about the range of contents in the Johnson book.

I expect I'll buy both of these, though any input would be appreciated as it would help me decide which one to get first!

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oxonianus

21 Mar, 2023
2023-3-21 3:52:17 PM UTC

The 1970 West book has only 10 pages listing book reviews, which are simply title, author, source, with only a handful of the entries annotated. His later supplements will add to that, I suppose, but I don't have all of those.

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Urulókë

21 Mar, 2023
2023-3-21 4:05:18 PM UTC

The 1981 second edition of West's book has a single paragraph analysis of each review or article mentioned, so it is more helpful (specifically for your need, book reviews) than his first edition which is primarily a checklist in this regard.

I picked one early review (Naomi Mitchison, New Statesman and Nation, 1954 review of Fellowship of the Ring) as an example - maybe not the best, but all three have it.

It should be noted that Johnson's focus is on "Critical Response", and so only a very few reviews made it into her volume, if they were by noted individuals with critical opinions rather than generalist book reviews.