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The HoMe books are really just the collected earlier, abandoned and alternative drafts of the main 'canon' material that makes up the contents of the Silmarillion and LOTR. There are some very interesting bits and pieces that are only found in them, but yeah I'd read the main books again first. Also, if you want a quick path to a deeper understanding of the whole mythos, add to your list one more book, the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, which does in fact touch on this and a whole lot of other fascinating core details.
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998 An Amazon link to The Letters of Tolkien Unfortunately I can't help you I asked because I plan to do the same after I finish with the Witcher and I wasn't sure about the order
I didn't study Jefferson all that much. I did study Washington, and did my final research paper (for my B.S in History) on Washington
However. I would pick up The Adams-Jefferson Letters The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail And John Adams. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807842303?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00
Also You could pick up what is called: Jefferson's Writings http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Jefferson-Writings-Autobiography-Addresses/dp/094045016X/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XGBZYMQVME0K99J5HQZ&dpID=41MkU7lrtVL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR99%2C160_
My approach was to study the man first, not what other people said about the man.
Sure, I learned that my anxiety won’t go away but I’ve learned to live with it. Over time it gets easier to manage. When I get thoughts like “what if she doesn't want me anymore” I tell myself that I would be ok. I would be in pain than find someone new
There's no way around pain tho. You just have to accept that sometimes you’re going to get hurt but love is worth it.
I recommend reading this book
i'm a huge Tolkien fan too. if you read his letters https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998 it discussed this and says that a different letter was probably sent to the German publisher. the one that you quoted was in Tolkien's publishers files which means it wasn't actually sent.
When somebody types Letters, in italics, they are referring to this book:
> it seems like there are some really valuable Tolkien insight into the lore.
Absolutely. There’s a tremendous wealth of info on the Legendarium buried in them.
> Is there a good reliable place for me to find them to read and take notes on?
They’re collected in *The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter with a little help from Christopher Tolkien. You can buy it here, or from any other reputable retailer.
There is indeed! It would be this one here.
I know there are a few different listings for Tolkien that use "Tolkien+Letters" in the title, so I feel ya.
I found the Penguin Classic edition easy to read.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140442103/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
A young Bach, in his first job, was in charge of a student orchestra. He drew a knife on a bassoon student, during an altercation with said bassoonist.
Mozart's scatological humor is preserved in his letters to his mom, his cousin, his sister.
I think it's required for musicians to be a bit "off," tbh. Same with artists, same with engineers.
People don't change. We will always be what we are, no matter which century is being discussed.
The trouble is, modern people look at those stiff, posed portraits of the past (when you had to sit for a painting, or wear a neck brace for a photograph because the exposure times were so long) and believe that static image is the truth about the subject.
You imagine having hi-performance cameras back in Mozart's day, what that party animal must've been like in his element? He'd be all over IG and FB and what not, and probably have a rabid band of simpers after him -- and also a lot of haters against him. I imagine it'd be like seeing an IG feed of some metal rocker or something.
They were all troublemakers. Some hid it better than others.. and some just didn't care to hide it.
Never fear. We know how Tolkien felt on this issues... he was very vocal in his opinions & wrote many letters making his views clear.
His son Christopher once went to South Africa under apartheid during WWII & was shocked at the poverty & misery of POC & the indigenous people there.
He wrote his father, to which Tolkien replied:
"As for what you say or hint of 'local' conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain & not only in South Africa." (Letter, April 19, 1944).
So he wasn't into racist, colorist apartheid at all.
He was also vocal in rejection of white supremacy & anti-Semitism. His German publisher before the war once dared wrote him to ask if he was "Aryan." Tolkien fired back (while slamming their abuse of the word Aryan): "I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian... But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people." (Letter, July 29, 1938)
Tolkien was raised & lived in a racist, imperialist & colonialist UK. He was not perfect; he was human. However for a person of his time, he was extremely progressive.
He was also an environmentalist & was against nuclear weapons from their very invention.
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998
I almost left that one off because I always think "no one else wants to read this" but honestly the letters are so funny and warm. There are several translations that put a different flavor on them-- some include the letters his family sent him as well. This is the version I read: https://www.amazon.com/Mozarts-Letters-Life-Robert-Spaethling/dp/0393328309?asin=0393328309&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1
Maybe Seneca`s letters (amazon link). Here one example of what you will find in his work:
“Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is
within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power
to live long.”
or
​
“As it is with a play, so it is with life - what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.”
He did eventually change his tune on this, but that was changed during the revisions. I am not sure if he released versions of the books before these revisions occurred so you might have a version that pre-dates this decision by him. But, even with his change of heart it's specifically NOT allegory. That didn't change. It's just that he says its fundamentally a Catholic book.
The quote: "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism"
This is a quote from the collection of letters published in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. You can buy that book and read tons of letters he wrote people covering tons of additional information on concepts or decisions he made during the writing, as well as his speculation on things that were never codified in the books themselves.
Hey I know I'm a day late, but I still wanted to add something. Something that helped me a lot personally was reading about Lou Sullivan, a gay trans man who lives from 1951-91. He wrote in his diary a lot and most of it was about having sex with/lusting after other gay men. His dairies are published now and you can buy them off Amazon, but if you're not a reader you can just read his Wikipedia article lmao.
I don't know why but knowing that gay trans men existed pre Internet and had relationships with other men really helped solidify the idea that I'm not fetishizing gay men in my head, that I'm actually attracted to them because I'm gay.
We Both Laughed in Pleasure: the diaries of pioneering trans activist Lou Sullivan
I've got the Adams-Jefferson Letters sitting on my bookshelf and am looking forward to the opportunity to read through them.
I can't stand scotch (bourbon guy). For the last 9 years, my wife and some friends, go to our local bar and toast Hitch with a glass of scotch, and each of us read a passage from something Hitch wrote. My go to is Letter to a Young Contrarian.
The reason that I mention that I hate scotch is that every year, I have to explain to the bartender that I want to have a nice scotch, but that I really don't like it. After confused looks I ask them to please find one that would be tolerable for a bourbon drinker. My friends think it's ridiculous that I have to go through this every year. I landed on Glenmorangie Lasanta 12 Year. It's not bad at all.
My wife told me that Hitch had died while I was in the shower that morning. It was a good thing. Even though it was just a matter of time, I couldn't help but get emotional. I was lucky enough to have met him a year or two before his death. He can in my city debating Bill Dembski at a church that's so big we call it "Six Flag Over Jesus". Even though he was super weak, he stayed to talk to folks afterward.
I haven't read it, but I believe that the book What This Cruel War Was Over by Chandra Manning is along the lines of what you're looking for.
https://www.amazon.com/What-This-Cruel-War-Over/dp/0307277321
I think the best place to start is with his Letters. Here's a link (with referral Id removed): https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103/
I like the Lobe editions (because it includes the Latin), but that is a cheaper compendium with a better English translation :)
Hey man, I feel you. I’ve found Stoicism really helped me get a better handle on things and gain some useful perspective. Particularly when I was going through a rough time not that long ago.
I’d recommend...
This video as a starting point: https://youtu.be/5J6jAC6XxAI
And this book: Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium https://www.amazon.sg/dp/0140442103/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_7XwQFbQXFBHKR?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Good luck on the path.
This is a thoughtful, engaging post and a unique theory.
I haven’t read the replies yet, but I’m confident that any conflicts with the wealth of established (and expanded lore) only facilitates more analysis and creative thought. Tolkien would have loved this even if it doesn’t jive with the world he was building (and constantly tweaking until the day he died, by the way).
He corresponded with friends and colleagues constantly ... answering questions and working out the details, always with the goal of ensuring the world was internally consistent (and congruent with Christian values, expressed in a secular way). If you’re interested in these correspondences, please check out The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
I digress.
It's not the notes or footnotes. Most printings of the Letters from after 1999 (or 2000 in the US) have a very extensive index at the back compiled by Hammond and Scull. Earlier editions also had an index, but it was briefer. You can get a sense of the detail of the index in the Amazon preview of the book here. If you want to know about, say, Tolkien's thoughts on Faramir, there's an index entry for that, which also has subsections directing you to letters about specific aspects of the character, like his relationship with his father. It's very useful. When I first read the letters I went to the index first to find references to things that most interested me.
I see you have an e-copy. Is it this one? If so, there's no index included, which is a pity. The printed index is ordered by page number, rather than letter number, so you won't be able to collate one against the other either.
The two books you linked are different. Letters from a Stoic (you linked what looks to be an older, out of print edition of this one) was translated by Robin Campbell in 1969 and contains a selection of letters that he chose (not all 124).
The second book you linked says in the description at the top:
> This edition contains all 124 letters by Seneca and fragments quoted by Aulus Gellius.
Since there's no translator listed and it's printed by "CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform", I assume that this is a public domain translation, probably the translation by Richard Mott Gummere, which can be found free online.
In my library for sure. A bit too heavy for me this evening. Sticking with what I have been reading all week. The Proud Highway
"Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius
Good stoicism starters.
there are lots of books on Mozart's letters at Amazon, this one seems to be the most popular:
Yes!!!
Philosophy: Love of Wisdom.
I've found that the stoics, especially, are really great. The Greeks were constantly looking to answer the question of "How, then, should we live?" It's the same question that we look to answer as we turn away from a TSCC church, isn't it? You can read one of Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" every day in place of scripture and get more out of it than you ever did from BoM.