We started a retrospective on Tolkien’s rise to superstardom, which began with a left-wing movement in the 1970s appropriating his work, and has slowly migrated over time to people realizing how right-wing and Christian Lord of the Rings is. Now, we continue.
Christopher Tolkien resigned from the board of the Tolkien Estate in August 2017, at the age of ninety-two.
He had served as literary executor since his father’s death in 1973. Forty-four years of guardianship. Twenty-four edited volumes. A lifetime spent deciphering manuscripts written in pencil over erased earlier drafts, some of them composed in army huts during the First World War. He had protected his father’s legacy with a ferocity that Hollywood found maddening and scholars found admirable.
