First Newspaper Tolkien Interview

SamwiseTheBrave wrote:

The description is quite interesting:

https://www.tomwayling.co.uk/product-page/smith-of-wootton-major-6

It's admittedly a fringe piece of information, but contrary to what's stated here, Ezard wasn't the first newspaperman to interview Tolkien.

In 1961, Tolkien was interviewed by the Swedish journalist Lars Gustafsson whose write up appeared in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 21 August 1961.

The interview is mentioned in the Letters Guide:

https://www.tolkienguide.com/guide/letters/2291?q=Gustafsson

I have a copy of it in Swedish, though an English translation also appeared in an issue of Hither Shore in 2013:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Den_besynnerlige_professor_Tolkien

I'm not sure if there are any earlier interviews, though that Tolkien Gateway page mentions another one, again by a Swedish journalist, which must have been very close in time to the Gustafsson one.

I didn't know about the Swedish interviews, so thank you. It was Ezard himself who was under the impression he was the first newspaper journalist to interview him.

He wrote a rather sweet reminiscence of the interview and his friendship with Tolkien for the Guardian on Tolkien's centenary: https://www.theguardian.com/books/1991/dec/28/jrrtolkien.classics

Predictable Matt wrote:

I'm not sure if there are any earlier interviews, though that Tolkien Gateway page mentions another one, again by a Swedish journalist, which must have been very close in time to the Gustafsson one.

The earliest interview, though not by a 'newspaperman' was from January 15, 1957 I believe, for the NBC Radio show 'Carnival of Books'.

onthetrail wrote:

Predictable Matt wrote:

I'm not sure if there are any earlier interviews, though that Tolkien Gateway page mentions another one, again by a Swedish journalist, which must have been very close in time to the Gustafsson one.

The earliest interview, though not by a 'newspaperman' was from January 15, 1957 I believe, for the NBC Radio show 'Carnival of Books'.

Aha indeed! And I realised that the well known Henry Resnick interview, which led to a piece in the Saturday Evening Post (US) on 2 July 1966, predated the Ezard one slightly - though Resnick's was conducted by telephone.

onthetrail wrote:

Predictable Matt wrote:

I'm not sure if there are any earlier interviews, though that Tolkien Gateway page mentions another one, again by a Swedish journalist, which must have been very close in time to the Gustafsson one.

The earliest interview, though not by a 'newspaperman' was from January 15, 1957 I believe, for the NBC Radio show 'Carnival of Books'.

For those that haven't seen it before, this is what I would consider the first printed interview taken from the 1957 recorded interview.

Also, don't forget that someone here owned or still owns this way cool item: https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ewtopic.php?post_id=57506

At the edge of his hole stood the Hobbit

!!!!

I have not seen this phrasing before. Nor the detail of 286 examination papers. Also, the "in the midst" seems to contradict what I noted in this comment last year.