On the Second day of Christmas.... Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

When I was reading The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings, I read about the letters that J.R.R. Tolkien would write to his children from Father Christmas each year. I found out that they had been published into a book called Letters from Father Christmas. I really wanted to read them!

I went onto Amazon and a few other websites but I just didn't know which version to buy. There were some cool ones that had pull out letters but then the reviews said that the letters weren't complete. I wanted to make sure I had the version that would have the complete letters. 

I have also wanted to try out the Book Depository so I went on there to see what they had. 

They had the one I wanted!

I bought it right then!

This book does not take long to read. It is just under two hundred pages and it is possible to read the whole thing in a couple of hours or over a couple of days. 

The letters start in 1920 and end in 1943. 

Each letter is in response to letters from his children and it is interesting to see how they change as they get older. 

The letters are accompanied by drawings that he did as well. And they are amazing. 

Tokien wrote each letter in a really shaky handwriting and all I could think as I looked at each one was how much time it must have taken him to write out the longer letters. This was one devoted father. 

The letters are so funny. 

He tells stories of antics of his Polar Bear, having to move house when the first house is ruined, floods, fireworks going off, goblin wars, and so much more. 

They are magical.

Really magical. 

I actually laughed out loud on multiple occasions at parts of the letters and at the pictures. 

My photos can't do it justice because this book is a treasure. 

There are copies of each letter he wrote so that you can read them and see the handwriting, additions made by the Polar bear and by elves, and see how he decorated the pages. 

But then it also has each letter typed out so that it is easier to read. 

I love that it gave us the letters in type but also allowed us to see the original work. 

In short, this is now one of my very favorite Christmas books and I will treasure it!

Let's talk about: The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski

 The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip and Carol Zaleski tells the stories of four of the main "Inklings": J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. 

We get a LOT of information not only about these four men but also those they surrounded themselves with and how they met.
I put a lot of tabs in this book while reading it. There were so many things I wanted to remember and go back to. There are so many good quotes. 

We began with Mr. Tolkien.

 They talked a lot about his mom. Mabel gave him a great world to grow up in. She taught him Latin, French, German, about linguistics. Her influence created a thirst for knowledge of languages, alphabets, and etymologies that would last throughout his entire life. 

She taught him to draw and paint and introduced him to the children's stories of the time such as Alice in Wonderland and other fairy tales.
We also learned a lot about his wife and children. He was so devoted to them. It seemed that like most of us, he always felt like he should be doing more and yet he was doing so much. 

I was so impressed with Tolkien. Obviously I already really enjoy his work but this book just opened my eyes to him as a man and not just the creator of the marvelous world of Middle Earth. 

He was such a good man. It has given me some information on some of his other books that I will be talking about soon as well. 

C.S. Lewis grew up with his brother as his main companion. One of my favorite parts of his story was when they were quoting a letter he wrote about his brother Warnie coming home. 

"Horra!! Warnie comes home this morning. I am lying in bed waiting for him and thinking of him, before I know where I am I hear his boots pounding the stairs, he comes into the room, we shake hands, and begin to talk... well I was glad to have him but of course we had our rows afterwards..."

It is just such a telling quote about siblings. 

I was surprised by Lewis. I knew that he grew up religious and at some point became atheist and then later accepted Christianity again. 

What I didn't know was that while he wasn't my least favorite of the Inklings, he was certainly not my favorite person during his teenage and atheist years. He seemed to be quite the sadist and sexist man.
We followed his life through his affair with Mrs. Moore and then his romance with Joy. 
Later he improved greatly in my estimation and I found his transformation very interesting.
His quotes gave me a lot to think about. 

 I had never heard of Owen Barfield before reading this book. I enjoyed learning about him. I am curious to read his book, The Silver Trumpet, but haven't had any luck finding a reasonably priced one. Owen seemed like a nice gentleman. He was depressed a lot, or at least seemed to be. 

He had a stutter and found that reciting poetry and singing helped it.
Owen seemed to always think he wasn't good enough and I felt so sad for him and the fact that he seemed to always be unhappy with who he was and what he was doing. 

Charles Williams was the Inkling that I never liked throughout the book. 

"Charles Williams was a man that everyone had trouble describing. He seemed ugly but beautiful, a swirling mass of contradictions. He wrote shockers that failed to shock. He worshipped women but 'liked to beat them with a ruler'. He was a faithful husband with a harem of besotted acolytes. He was orthodox but heretical, a devout Anglican who practiced magic. He had a face at once hideous and beautiful."
He also kind of looks like the mean teacher in Anne of Green Gables... or is that just me thinking that? 

The Inklings were actually begun by Edward Tangye Lean. He founded the group when he was an undergraduate. He created it so that a small society of literary students could " pay homage to those who express themselves through ink as well as those who discover through their inky labors, inklings of a higher world." Tolkien and Lewis joined his group and took over when he graduated.

I found it interesting that Tolkien's son Christopher became an active inkling as well when he came to read English at Oxford.

Overall, this book was really well written. There was a lot of information. So much that it could be a bit tedious at times. However, I really enjoyed reading it and finding out so much more about these men and the times they lived in. It is a very interesting book and well worth the time it takes to read it.

Let's talk about: Boxen, Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia

One day while I was at the library they just happened to have this out on a shelf being displayed. 

I had no idea that it existed so I grabbed it and checked it out. 

This book is introduced by Douglas Gresham, giving us a look at the childhood of C.S. and W. H. Lewis. We read about how they spent much of their time in the attic and they began to build worlds together. 

The book is full of their drawings and stories. 

While it isn't on my top list of favorite reads ever, the talent these boys showed at such a young age is remarkable. In some of the stories they were as young or younger than my daughters and I couldn't believe the vocabulary, handwriting, and writing ability they already had. 

I wouldn't urge you to run out and buy it but if you get a chance you might want to peruse it simply to read a bit of their young imaginations.