Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey Carpenter | |
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Born | Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (1946-04-29)29 April 1946 Oxford, England |
Died | 4 January 2005(2005-01-04) (aged 58) Oxford, England |
Occupation | Writer, biographer and broadcaster |
Alma mater | Keble College, Oxford |
Notable works | J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography Mr Majeika |
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings.
Early life
Carpenter was born (and lived almost all of his life, and died) in the city of Oxford, England. His father was Harry Carpenter, Bishop of Oxford. His mother was Urith Monica Trevelyan, who had training in the Fröbel teaching method.[1] As a child, he lived in the Warden's Lodgings at Keble College, Oxford, where his father served as warden until his appointment as Bishop of Oxford. He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford and Marlborough College. He returned to Oxford to read English at Keble College.[citation needed]
Non-fiction works
His biographies included J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977; also editing of The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien), The Inklings: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and their Friends (1978; winner of the 1978 Somerset Maugham Award), W. H. Auden (1981), Ezra Pound (1988; winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize), Evelyn Waugh (1989), Benjamin Britten (1992), Robert Runcie (1997), Dennis Potter, and Spike Milligan (2004). He also authored Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s (1987), and his last book The Seven Lives of John Murray (2008) about John Murray and the publishing house of Albemarle Street, was published posthumously.
He also wrote histories of BBC Radio 3 (on which he had regular stints as broadcaster), the British satire boom of the 1960s, Angry Young Men: A Literary Comedy of the 1950s (2002), and a centennial history of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1985. His encyclopaedic work, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (1984), written jointly with his wife, Mari Prichard, has become a standard reference source.
Children's books
His Mr Majeika series of children's books were adapted for television. The Joshers: Or London to Birmingham with Albert and Victoria (1977) is a children's adventure book, similar in style to The Railway Children and based on the adventure of taking a working narrowboat up the Grand Union Canal from London to Birmingham.
Broadcasting
Carpenter began his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Oxford as a presenter and producer where he met Mari Prichard (whose father was Caradog Prichard, the Welsh novelist and poet); they married in 1973.[1][2] They jointly produced A Thames Companion in 1975. He played a role in launching Radio 3's arts discussion programme Night Waves and acted as a regular presenter of other programmes on the network including Radio 3's afternoon drivetime programme In Tune and, until it was discontinued, its Sunday request programme Listeners' Choice. Until his death, he presented the BBC Radio 4 biography series Great Lives recorded in Bristol. The last edition recorded before his death featured an interview with the singer Eddi Reader about the poet Robert Burns, the major focus of her creative work. BBC Radio 4 broadcast this programme on New Year's Eve, 2004.
Jazz music and children's drama
Carpenter was an amateur jazz musician who played the piano, the saxophone, and the double-bass, the last instrument professionally in a dance band in the 1970s. In 1983, he formed a 1930s style jazz band, Vile Bodies, which for many years enjoyed a residency at the Ritz Hotel in London. He also founded the Mushy Pea Theatre Group, a children's drama group based in Oxford, which premiered his Mr Majeika: The Musical in 1991 and Babes, a musical about Hollywood child stars.
Death
Humphrey Carpenter died in 2005 of heart failure, compounded by the Parkinson's disease from which he had suffered for several years. He was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford, also the final resting place of J. R. R. Tolkien.[3] A commemorative stained-glass window was installed in St Margaret's Institute, Polstead Road, honouring Carpenter's many accomplishments.[2]
References
- ^ a b Walsh, John (5 January 2005). "Humphrey Carpenter". The Independent. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ a b Kelly, John (5 January 2005). "Humphrey Carpenter: A perceptive biographer and engaging broadcaster with a deep love of music and the imaginative world of the child". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
- ^ "Notable People Buried in Oxford Cemeteries" (PDF). Oxford City Council. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
External links
- Gently mischievous broadcaster and prolific writer, The Times, 6 January 2005
- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Humphrey Carpenter, English biographer, dies at 58", The New York Times, 19 January 2005
- Tributes Paid to Humphrey Carpenter BBC Radio
- Humphrey Carpenter at IMDb
- Finding aid to the Humphrey Carpenter papers at Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library
- v
- t
- e
and songs
- Songs for the Philologists (1936)
- The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953)
- "A Walking Song" (1954)
- The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
- "Errantry"
- "Fastitocalon"
- "The Sea-Bell"
- "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late"
- The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
- Bilbo's Last Song (1974)
- List of Tolkien's alliterative verse
- The Hobbit (1937)
- "Leaf by Niggle" (1947)
- The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945)
- Farmer Giles of Ham (1949)
- The Lord of the Rings:
- The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- The Two Towers (1954)
- The Return of the King (1955)
- Tree and Leaf (1964)
- The Tolkien Reader (1966)
- Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
fiction
- The Father Christmas Letters (1976)
- The Silmarillion (1977)
- Unfinished Tales (1980)
- Mr. Bliss (1982)
- The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996)
- Roverandom (1998)
- The Children of Húrin (2007)
- The History of The Hobbit (2007)
- The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009)
- The Fall of Arthur (2013)
- The Story of Kullervo (2015)
- Beren and Lúthien (2017)
- The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
- The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)
- The Fall of Númenor (2022)
works
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925)
- "The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925)
- "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929)
- "Sigelwara Land" (1932–34)
- "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934)
- "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)
- "On Fairy-Stories" (1939)
- "On Translating Beowulf" (1940)
- Sir Orfeo (1944)
- Ancrene Wisse (1962)
- "English and Welsh" (1963)
- Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)
academic
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975)
- Exodus (1981)
- Finn and Hengest (1982)
- The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983)
- Beowulf and the Critics (2002)
- Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014)
- A Secret Vice (2016)
Writers |
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Christian | |
Literary critics |
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Linguists | |
Medievalists |
- A Tolkien Compass
- Family
- Influences
- Artwork
- J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
- Languages constructed by Tolkien
- The Inklings
- The Keys of Middle-earth
- Mythlore
- Mythopoeic Society
- Picturing Tolkien
- Tolkien and the Classical World
- Tolkien's impact on fantasy
- Tolkien and the modernists
- Tolkien Estate
- Tolkien fandom
- The Tolkien Society
- Tolkien Studies
- Memorials
- Reception
- Tolkien research
- Works inspired by Tolkien
- J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977, authorized biography)
- The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
- Master of Middle-Earth
- Perilous Realms
- Tolkien and the Great War
- The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien
- Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
- Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon
- Tolkien, Race and Cultural History
- Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'
- Tolkien (biographical film)
- Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (album)
- Language and Human Nature
- The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary
- Understanding The Lord of the Rings