20 Which books _about_ Tolkien are good, and which aren't?
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This article is from the Tolkien Newsgroups FAQ, by Steuard Jensen sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu with numerous contributions by others.
20 Which books _about_ Tolkien are good, and which aren't?
A few disclaimers. First, this is a very subjective question, and
what follows is largely a matter of individual opinion. This list was
gleaned from discussions on the newsgroups and it reflects some level
of consensus, but no verdict was unanimous. Second, this list is
_very_ incomplete, but there simply isn't space to list all of the
excellent scholarship on Tolkien that has been produced. Unfortunately,
this means that only books will be included, and I will focus on only
the best known of those (and even then, I'm sure some are missing). My
apologies to anyone who has been overlooked.
With that being said, these are some of the best secondary works
about Tolkien, in no particular order. I have included general
descriptions for books whose titles do not make their content clear.
* _The Complete Guide to Middle-earth_, by Robert Foster. A
detailed and very trustworthy glossary of people, places, and
things in _The Hobbit_, LotR, and _The Silmarillion_, including
page references to the original texts.
* _[J.R.R.] Tolkien: A Biography_, by Humphrey Carpenter. (The
initials are not part of the title in the USA.)
* _The Annotated Hobbit_, by J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Douglas A.
Anderson. Textual history and general comments (be sure to get
the recent second edition).
* _J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator_ by Wayne Hammond and
Christina Scull. Pictures by Tolkien and accompanying
discussion.
* _The Road to Middle-earth_ and _J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the
Century_, by Tom Shippey. Literary analysis and criticism.
* _Splintered Light_ and _A Question of Time_, by Verlyn Flieger.
Literary analysis and criticism.
* _Tolkien's Legendarium_, ed. Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter.
Literary analysis and criticism related to the "History of
Middle-earth" series (and Tolkien's other works). Some find
parts of this book to be a good introduction to that series.
A notable book whose status is ambiguous is _The Atlas of
Middle-earth_, by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It is the best general Tolkien
atlas available, covering the full history of Middle-earth, and in most
cases Fonstad has done well in extrapolating detailed topographic maps
from Tolkien's texts and rougher originals. However, there are a fair
number of minor errors in her research, and it can sometimes be
difficult to tell what level of justification exists for each of her
maps' details.
Finally, what follow are a few books that many Tolkien scholars
avoid. All of them can be enjoyable to read when taken on their own,
but they are not entirely trustworthy guides to Tolkien's Middle-earth
and are generally ignored in scholarly debates. Because I am not
comfortable speaking poorly of others' work without justification, I
have provided links to further discussion for each of these titles.
* _A Tolkien Bestiary_, and other books by David Day.
http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/DayBooks.html
* _The Tolkien Companion_, by J.E.A. Tyler.
http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TylerBook.html
* _The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth_, by Ruth Noel.
http://www.elvish.org/articles/LRH.html
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