Priscilla Tolkien (1929-2022)

PRISCILLA TOLKIEN, 92, died February 28, 2022 after a brief illness. She was the youngest, and last surviving, child of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s, and was vice president of the Tolkien Society from 1986.

Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien was born June 18, 1929 in Oxford, England, where her father taught. She had a stuffed teddy bear named Bingo as a child, and in early drafts of The Lord of the Rings, the hobbit Frodo Baggins was named Bingo Baggins. As a teenager, she typed some of her father’s longhand manuscripts. She attended Lady Margaret Hall college at Oxford, where she studied English. After working briefly as a sec­retary, she studied social services at the London School of Economics, and went on to a long career as a social worker. She later taught social work at the University of Oxford and High Wycombe College, and taught English at Beechlawn Tutorial College. After her father’s death, she served as a representative of the family, and was a trustee of the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien Trust. With brother John Tolkien she wrote and compiled The Tolkien Family Album (1992), a biographical photo book.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.