Again, I’m a day late, but happy birthday to J.R.R. Tolkien! May his tribe increase.

Walt Mills mentions the great one in his column today. ” . . . disease and starvation, heroism and the depths of human despair . . . I could have picked up almost any Dickens novel and had pretty much the same experience. Dickens is a true winter novelist, just as The Lord of the Rings trilogy are autumn books, my wife pointed out to me many years ago. Tolkien had an autumn imagination, the feel of leaves turning and the golden fields. Time to set off on an adventure. I turn to Tolkien in the fall.”

Tolkien is also on a new CD set from the BBC called The Spoken Word, a compilation of programs with literary figures.