The Line Up (Kalamazoo Tolkienists)

So, thanks to Doug for pointing out that if you go to the website for the Medieval Congress, there's a photograph of three very familiar faces.


http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_icms/



 I don't recognize the person in blue, but the three on the right are


(1) Richard West, author of TOLKIEN CRITICISM: AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST, one of the very first books on Tolkien (preceded, I think, only by Isaacs & Zimbardo, Ready, and Lin Carter), editor of ORCRIST, longtime member of the University of Madison Tolkien Society (one of the longest lived Tolkien-themed book discussion groups*), and Guest of Honor at this year's Mythcon (a well-deserved honor).

(2) Deborah Webster Rogers, who actually corresponded with Tolkien (see LETTERS OF J. R. R. TOLKIEN, p. 288-289 [Letter #213]), wrote one of the earliest theses on his work, and co-wrote one of the best introductions to Tolkien (for the Twayne English Author series); she was also a contributor to Lobdell's A TOLKIEN COMPASS.

(3) me, listening intently. Wish I knew which session this was, and who was speaking; I'd dig out my notes for that session and re-read them.

I'm curious how this particular picture happened to get chosen, out of all the myriad that must have been available, but I'm pleased and bemused that we look sufficiently scholarly for their purposes.

And having just heard today that my paper topic has been approved, and also that I'll be on a roundtable I was deeply interested in, I'll be going back again next year too (for the eighth in a row, I think). Hope to see you there.

--John R.
current reading (still): A STING IN THE TALE by Goulson [2013]


*now I think in its forty-eighth year