Richard C. West, Tolkien scholar

[Extollager]

West was one prominent among the people who produced the best early Tolkien fanzines, notably Orcrist. His bibliography of works by and about Tolkien was first published 50 years ago by the Kent State University Press, signaling that publisher's interest in readable, useful Tolkien and Inklings scholarship, which continues to this day with works like McBride's Tolkien's Cosmology. I can't have been the only person who spent happy hours working with the 1970 bibliography in college, tracking down articles in the periodical stacks and eventually asking the interlibrary loan staff for help with things not on site. I see I got my own copy of the bibliography in January 1975, by mail from T-K Graphics, which people of a certain age might remember. It's great that Dick West lived to see a final (?) issue of Orcrist published just a few years ago. I never met him in person, but my sense from our emails and what I have read elsewhere is that he was a gentleman, a really good guy.

I learned of Dick's death here:

Tolkien and Fantasy: RIP: Richard C. West (1944-2020)

 

[Extollager]

Here is a very good piece about Richard written by noted Tolkien scholar David Bratman.

Richard C. West, 1944-2020 – The Tolkien Society

("B." is David's wife.)

Having just worked my way through almost the entirety of Christopher Tolkien's History of The Lord of the Rings, I agree with Richard: “If we pick [various discarded ideas] out of the scrap heap it is only to show how wise the author was to throw them there" -- interesting as many of them were. But Tolkien's subsequent thoughts were better.