High price of Tolkien's success - Xoanon @ 10:35 PST
From: John Garth

I thought you might be interested in linking to my review of Tom Shippey's J R R Tolkien: Author of the Century_, published late last year in the London Evening Standard.

Imagine this. A book which has sold millions of copies in dozens of languages wins the top slot in a readers' poll of all-time greats, and continues to shine in a whole string of polls.

The book has inspired radicals and reactionaries; artists, musicians and linguists; radio, film and stage adaptations and a whole genre of fiction. Do the keepers of the literary flame inquire what is so great about this book? Not at all. They declare that there's something wrong with the polls, or the readers, or (especially) the book. [More]