Thread by @incunabula

Christopher Tolkien, the third son and editor of much of his father JRR Tolkien's posthumously published work, passed away early Thursday morning at the age of 95 at the hospital in Draguignan, in the Var region of south-east France.

varmatin.com/culture/christ…

Tolkien once referred to his son as his "chief critic and collaborator", and named him his literary executor in his will. Tolkien organized the masses of his father's unpublished writings, some of them handwritten on odd scraps of paper a half-century earlier.

In the years following, Tolkien worked on the manuscripts and was able to produce an edition of The Silmarillion for publication in 1977; his assistant for part of this work was Guy Gavriel Kay who became a noted fantasy author himself.

Tolkien last lived in the French countryside with his second wife, Baillie Tolkien, who edited J. R. R. Tolkien's The Father Christmas Letters for posthumous publication. They have two children, Adam Reuel Tolkien and Rachel Clare Reuel Tolkien.

In the wake of a dispute surrounding the making of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy he disowned his son by his first marriage, barrister and novelist Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien, though they reconciled prior to Christopher's passing.

"He was critical of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings. In a 2012 interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he criticised the adaptations saying: "They gutted the book, making an action film for 15 to 25-year-olds."
theguardian.com/books/2020/jan…

"Like his father, Tolkien spent much of his life devoted to, and surrounded by, books. Both men were scholars of Old and Middle English and both lectured at Oxford. But the younger man was an authority, above all, on the writing that his father produced."
nyti.ms/38hfGqj

"Nous avons perdu un titan"

Le Monde this morning paying tribute to the enormous impact Christopher Tolkien had in shaping - and considerably expanding - his father's literary legacy. #ChristopherTolkien

lemonde.fr/culture/articl…

The @TolkienSociety released a statement about Christopher #Tolkien’s death late yesterday.

tolkiensociety.org/2020/01/christ…

@TolkienSociety Tolkien scholar @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi has perfectly encapsulated his legacy:

"He gave us a window into Tolkien’s creative process, and he provided scholarly commentary that enriched our understanding of Middle-earth. He was Middle-earth’s cartographer and first scholar."

@TolkienSociety @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi

https://twitter.com/TolkienGuide/status/1218024937325129728

@TolkienSociety @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi A beautiful blog-post by @TolkienGuide, quoting a deeply moving letter written by JRR Tolkien to his son Christopher.

tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/…