Tom Shippey

Tom Shippey

Shippey in 2015.
Born Thomas Alan Shippey
(1943-09-09) 9 September 1943
Calcutta, British India
Nationality British
Occupation Academic, writer
Known for Tolkien scholarship

Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943)[1] is a British scholar of medievalism, of medieval literature, including that of Anglo-Saxon England, and of modern fantasy and science fiction. In particular he is widely considered one of the world's leading academic scholars on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers.

Life

Youth

Shippey was born in 1943 in Calcutta, British India, where he also spent the first years of his life.[1][2] He was sent to a boarding school in England, and studied at King Edward's School in Birmingham from 1954 to 1960.[3]

When he was 14 years old, he was lent The Hobbit.[4] Like Tolkien, Shippey became fond of Old English, Old Norse, German and Latin, and of playing rugby.[2]

Academic career

After Shippey's graduation in the early 1960s he did not immediately start an academic career since the British economy of the time did not offer many jobs. Only in the mid-1960s did he enrol at the University of Cambridge from where he graduated with M.A. in 1968.[4][5] He was awarded a PhD from Cambridge University in 1990.[5]

In 1996, Shippey was given the Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities at Saint Louis University's College of Arts and Sciences, where he focussed on academic teaching, research and publishing. He retired from there in 2008.

From 2003 to 2007, he served as the editor of the journal Studies in Medievalism and from 2003 to 2009, he was the President of the International Society for the Study of Medievalism.

Fiction

Under the pseudonym of "Tom Allen" he has written two stories that were published in anthologies edited by Peter Weston. The first published was the fantasy story "King, Dragon" in Andromeda 2 in 1977; the second was the science fiction novelette "Not Absolute" in Andromeda 3 in 1978.[6]

Under the pseudonym of John Holm, he is also the co-author, with Harry Harrison, of The Hammer and the Cross trilogy of alternate history novels.[1] Shippey had earlier assisted Harrison in devising fictional languages for the author's Eden trilogy.

In addition to writing books of his own, he has edited both The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, and The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories and reviews science fiction for the Wall Street Journal.[7] In 2009, he wrote a scholarly 21-page introduction to Flights of Eagles, a collection of James Blish works.[8]

Tolkien scholarship

In late 1969 or early 1970, Shippey wrote his first academic work on Tolkien. He then held a speech at a Tolkien day organised by a student association. This lecture, "Tolkien as philologist" became also influential for Shippey's view of Tolkien. Joy Hill, Tolkien's private secretary, was in the audience and afterwards she asked him for the script, for Tolkien to read. On 13 April 1970, Shippey received a seemingly formal letter from Tolkien.[3]

The two, Shippey and Tolkien, first met in 1972. Shippey was invited for dinner by Norman Davis who had succeeded Tolkien at the Merton Chair of English Language. When he became a Fellow of St. John's College, Shippey taught Old and Middle English using Tolkien's syllabus.[3]

Shippey's first printed essay, "Creation from Philology in The Lord of the Rings", expanded on his 1970 lecture. In 1979, he was elected into a former position of Tolkien's, the Chair of English Language and Medieval English Literature at Leeds University. His first book, The Road to Middle-earth, was published in 1982. At this time, Shippey shifted from regarding Tolkien as a philologist to a "traumatised author" as he called it. This would include writers affected by war like Vonnegut and Golding.[3]

Shippey appeared in several documentaries about Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The dialect coaches were assisted by him[4] and Shippey received a personal mention in the closing credits.[9] He summarized his experiences with the film project as follows:

"The funny thing about interviews is you never know which bits they're going to pick. It always feels as if they sit you down, shine bright lights in your eyes, and ask you questions until you say something really silly, and that's the bit they choose. At least they didn't waterboard me. But it was good fun, and I'd cheerfully do it again."[10]

As an acknowledged expert on Tolkien, Shippey serves on the editorial board of Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review.[7]

Shippey's education and academic career have crossed paths in many ways with that of Tolkien's: like Tolkien, he attended King Edward's School in Birmingham and both taught Old English at Oxford University. Shippey also occupied Tolkien's former position at the University of Leeds and was responsible for changing the curriculum that Tolkien himself had instituted.[11]

Bibliography

Books

Edited volumes

Documentaries

Awards

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Shippey, Tom". SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 3rd ed. (online, 2011–present). Entry by John Clute, 12 August 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
    Shippey co-wrote the entries on Magic and History in SF.
  2. 1 2 Hanley, Paul (8 February 2008). "Let us introduce you to ... Thomas Shippey, PhD". The University News.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Tom Shippey (2003). "Preface to the Third Edition". The Road to Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  4. 1 2 3 White, Claire E. "Talking Tolkien With Thomas Shippey".
  5. 1 2 "T.A. Shippey, PhD". SLU website. Saint Louis University College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  6. ↑ William G. Contento, Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
  7. 1 2 Shippey's WSJ reviews
  8. ↑ Blish, James (October 2009). Flights of Eagles (1st ed.). NESFA Press. ISBN 978-1-886778-86-3.
  9. ↑ Tom Shippey at the Internet Movie Database
  10. ↑ "Transcript of chat session with Pr. Tom Shippey during The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun Online Release Party (09.05.09) – comments (1)". Tolkien Library. Pieter Collier.
  11. ↑ Shippey, Tom (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0 261 10401 2.
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