Marquette to Host Conference
on
The Lord of the Rings
Experts from Around
the World Re-visit the
Triology on its 50th Anniversary
Released:
October 15, 2004
MILWAUKEE Marquette is proud to host The Lord of the
Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder,
a conference celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the book,
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The conference
will run from Thursday, October 21- Saturday, October 23, 2004,
and will feature authors and scholars who specialize in the works
of J.R.R. Tolkien.
As part of the conference, Marquette 's Haggerty Museum of Art
will open The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, an exhibit
featuring paintings, sketches, illustrations, maps and fine calligraphy
from the J.R.R. Tolkien Collection. Arne Zettersten, professor
of English literature and language at the University of Copenhagen,
will share memories of his collaboration with J.R.R. Tolkien between
1960 and 1973.
The Department of Special Collections and Archives, located in
the Raynor Library, holds Tolkien's working papers for The
Lord of the Rings, including typescripts and galley sheets
with numerous corrections. The collection also includes materials
for Tolkien's other well-known works, The Hobbit and
Farmer Giles of Ham. The original copy of his children's
book, Mr. Bliss, done in Tolkien's best calligraphy with
color illustrations on each page, is also included in the collection,
as is a host of published and unpublished materials relating to
Tolkien's life and fantasy writings.
The late Richard E. Blackwelder, a retired professor of zoology
from Illinois, established the Tolkien Archives Fund at Marquette
in 1987 to provide support for the acquisition and preservation
of Tolkien research material in the Department of Special Collections.
He also donated a vast collection of secondary sources about J.R.R.
Tolkien to Marquette. In recent years the endowment has been used
to purchase unpublished letters by J.R.R. Tolkien that offer revealing
insights about his creative process. The endowment also enabled
curators to organize the upcoming conference.
For more information on the sold-out conference or the Tolkien
archive, please contact Anne Broeker in the Office of Public
Affairs.
