Maybe John Garth should have signed up for a heavier course load.

Students of the life and works of J. R. R. Tolkien will know Garth as the author of Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth, a vital study of Tolkien's experience as a soldier in the trenches, and of his long recovery from trench fever. That is a long and detailed book containing much material not available elsewhere; it is a vital reference for fans of Tolkien.

This is a completely different product. Available directly from the author (there seems to be no other way to get it, at least in the United States), it is a thin pamphlet (64 pages including the front and back covers) that appears to have been printed on demand on a laser printer. And even that page count may make it seem bigger than it is, because there are many photographs and copies of old manuscripts, plus sidebars about Tolkien's classmates at Oxford's Exeter College. Make no mistake: College was an important part of his life; in addition to earning the degree that let him become a professor after the war, he also gathered the knowledge that he put to use in his literary works.

But there is surprisingly little information about that. Want to know what lectures he attended? A few are mentioned, but there isn't a complete list. Granted, assembling such a list is probably no longer possible. But most of what we learn is about the clubs he was part of; there is very little about his actual academic career. We don't know much about his academic results, either, except that:
1. he earned a second-class result on Moderations (the exams half-way through the course to a degree) that could have cost him his Exhibitionship (a sort of lower-class scholarship) -- except that he did so well on a philology paper that he was allowed to shift into an English course
2. Having moved to English and language and philology, he earned a first-class degree (and headed straight into the army upon earning it)

All of this, and much else about his time in Oxford, can be learned from other sources, such as Scull and Hammond's J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology. When I read Garth's book about Tolkien and the war, I felt I learned something. In this book, I felt almost everything was familiar.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't get it. This is certainly a better read than Scull and Hammond, which really is just a detailed chronology, and it includes more information about Tolkien's college career than the biographies. It also probably does a better job of "translating" what Tolkien did in college for American readers, who have never heard of Moderations or Exhibitionships or First Class degrees. But, just as Tolkien was generally a reserve on college sports teams, because there were stronger, heftier men available, so this is a second-string book. Once you have Scull and Hammond, and Carpenter's biography, and Tom Shippey's and Verlyn Flieger's works, and for that matter Garth's earlier book, then buy this. As a backup. ( )