Category Archives: Letters

Christmas With J.R.R. Tolkien: The Father Christmas Letters

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

My little 2015 piece on J.R.R. Tolkien’s funny and endearing Father Christmas Letters has had quite a spin around the internet this week. I cannot think of a better Christmas note for you, dear readers of A Pilgrim in Narnia, … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, Memorable Quotes | Tagged art, art of letter writing, children's literature, Christmas, Christopher Tolkien, fantasy, Father Christmas, J.R.R. Tolkien, letters, literature, Lord of the Rings, myth, Santa Claus, The Hobbit, writing | 15 Comments

Christopher Tolkien, Curator of Middle-earth, Has Died, and a Letter from His Father

Posted on January 17, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

As last evening tilted towards nighttime in my part of the world, my social media feeds began filling with the news that Christopher Tolkien had died. The last living Inkling, Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 Nov 1924 to 15 Jan … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, News & Links | Tagged archival research, Beren and Lúthien, Christopher Tolkien, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle Earth, The History of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, The Inklings, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Tale of Beren and Lúthien | 58 Comments

C.S. Lewis’ 1st SciFi Fan Letters, from Evelyn Underhill and Roger Lancelyn Green

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

As part of an occasional feature I call “Throwback Thursday,” I want to roll back the calendar almost six years, to my early days as a blogger. “Throwback Thursday” is where I find a blog post from the past–raiding either … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, Lewis Biography | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Evelyn Underhill, fan letters, fantasy, Geez, Obama, Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom Trilogy, Roger Lancelyn Green, Science Fiction, SciFi, Sr. Penelope, theology, Utne Reader, writing | 20 Comments

The Tolkien Letters that Changed C.S. Lewis’ Life (On Tolkien’s Birthday)

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday. Born on January 3, 1892, he would be 127 today if he had been a longliver or immortal. To celebrate the occasion I decided to reblog my most popular Tolkien post. Tolkien’s work has made many … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, Lewis Biography, Throwback Thursdays | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Conversion, Humphrey Carpenter, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle Earth, myth, mythopoiea, Out of the Silent Planet, Poetry, Ransom Trilogy, Spiritual Autobiography | 23 Comments

A New C.S. Lewis Letter with Details About Narnia

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

That’s right, Dominic Winter Auctioneers is putting a newly surfaced letter from C.S. Lewis on the auction block. It is a great artifact, as The Daily Mail reports, a generous and light bit of Narnian delight as Lewis answers some questions from schoolchildren … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, Memorable Quotes | Tagged archive, books, C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, letters, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Narnia, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader | 40 Comments

The Last Letter of J.R.R. Tolkien, on the 45th Anniversary of His Death

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

I have just finished reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1982), which is fitting given that this is the 45th anniversary of his death (2 Sep 1973). With help from Christopher Tolkien, noted writer, broadcaster, and biographer Humphrey Carpenter collected the letters … Continue reading →

Posted in L.M. Montgomery, Letters | Tagged Christopher Tolkien, Death, diary, Dorothy L. Sayers, Guy Gavriel Kay, Humphrey Carpenter, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, L.M. Montgomery, letters, The Fall of Gondolin, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Walter Hooper | 33 Comments

Idea-Seeds in C.S. Lewis’ Letters (Throwback Thursday)

Posted on August 9, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

This summer I introduced an occasional feature I call “Throwback Thursday.” This is where I find a blog post from the past–raiding either my own vault or someone else’s–and throw it back out into the digital world. This might be an … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, Memorable Quotes, Throwback Thursdays | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, ideas, J.R.R. Tolkien, letters, literature, Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom Trilogy, The Problem of Pain, writing | 35 Comments

C.S. Lewis’ Teenage Bookshelf, and Other Lessons on Reading

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

The Beowulf author, Sir Thomas Malory, Jane Austen, William Morris, Charlotte Brontë, and Shakespeare. With the exception of Morris, who is merely an important author of his period, these are all canonical authors. Notably, though, these are all authors that Lewis … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Letters, On Writing, Original Research | Tagged A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, books, C.S. Lewis, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, literature, Malory, Reader Response Criticism, Reading, Shakespeare, Studies in Words, The Discarded Image, William Morris | 54 Comments

C.S. Lewis’ Normal and Not-So-Normal Life as a Student

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

As the cobblestone streets and hallowed halls of Oxford are beginning to fill for Michaelmas term, University students and faculty have been back to work here in North America. As I have a busy semester of teaching, I had a … Continue reading →

Posted in Letters, Lewis Biography | Tagged Anna Karenina, C.S. Lewis, Canterbury Tales, Cecil Harwood, diaries, Erewhon, History, owen barfield, Oxford, Poetry, Rudolph Steiner, University, writing | 13 Comments

Christmas With J.R.R. Tolkien: The Father Christmas Letters

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

What a find! At a yard sale a good friend scored a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Father Christmas Letters and she was good enough to give it to me. Published by his daughter-in-law in 1976 on the 3rd anniversary of Tolkien’s … Continue reading →