Books by J. S. Ryan

Following in the footsteps of the previous publication, Tolkien's View: Windows into his World, Professor J.S. Ryan in this latest collection of essays pursues Professor Tolkien's narrow path through the Nameless Wood of uncharted territory between academic research and myth-creation culminating in the writing of the 20th century's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings.Having himself studied under Professor J.R.R. Tolkien and having written for no less than 50 years on his inspirational teacher, his sources and the applicability of his writings, J.S. Ryan is uniquely placed to reflect not only on Tolkien the Scholar or Tolkien the Author, but equally on Tolkien the Man.

Tolkien's View: Windows into his World contains a number of selected essays by Professor J.S. Ryan, for their most part originally published over three decades from the 1960s to the 1990s, on the theme of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. Having himself studied under Professor Tolkien at the time of the publication of his masterwork The Lord of the Rings, Professor J.S. Ryan is uniquely well-placed to comment on some aspects of Tolkien's academic environment in Oxford, the subject matters J.R.R. Tolkien studied and brooded upon in his regular professional work and the people he personally knew, cherished and was influenced by as a student and then as a professor of Old and Middle English, a writer and a person.