Richard C. West, 1944–2020

The passing of Richard Carroll West (August 13, 1944 to November 29, 2020) at the age of seventy-six marks the end of a career in Tolkien, Inklings, and fantasy studies that from the very start combined the enthusiasm of fandom with the scrutiny of scholarship. The eldest of eight children, Richard was born and raised in the Boston area. He attended Cathedral High School, graduating second in his class. Both devout and tolerant, he took a modest pride in his descent from the family of Archbishop John Carroll, the first bishop appointed to serve in the post-revolutionary United States. He never thought to impose his views on others, yet when attending cons or academic conferences he was careful to schedule time for mass on Sunday mornings. While still in high school he was already involved with fandom—in this case, comic book fandom. An avid reader and collector of comic books, at the age of seventeen he won a contest in the letters page of a DC Comic. His prize was the original script by Gardner Fox, with editorial annotations by comic book legend Julius Schwartz, of the Adam Strange story "Challenge of the Rival Starman," which appeared in the June 1962 issue of Mystery in Space.

It was while pursuing his B.A. in English literature at Boston College, sometime during his sophomore year (circa 1964), that Richard discovered Tolkien. Already an admirer of folklore and fairy tale, the sagas and science fiction, and C. S. Lewis, he was reading the latter's That Hideous Strength when he noticed the passage in Lewis's Preface that said, "Those who would like to learn further about Numinor [sic] and the True West must (alas!) await the publication of much that still exists only in the MSS. of my friend, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien" (7). In light of the date of Lewis's book (1946 in its U.S. edition), it occurred to Richard that Tolkien might well have published some of this material in the intervening eighteen years. With the eye to detail and curiosity that would make him such a good bibliographer—the desire to "learn further"—he quickly tracked down The Lord of the Rings, read it, and at once bought copies of all three volumes (then available only in hardcover), having correctly concluded that this was a book he'd be rereading many times.

After receiving his B.A. in English from Boston College, Richard left his native Boston (circa 1966) and moved to Madison, which he made his home for the rest of his life. Attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, he studied medieval literature, with a special interest in the Arthurian legend, taking his Masters in English. As he pursued his Ph.D., Richard was mentored by Eugene Vinaver, the great Arthurian scholar (editor of the Winchester Malory). His dissertation project was an edition and I believe translation of the Mort Artu, one of the major ancestral texts underlying Malory's later work. Unfortunately, he failed to complete his doctorate, joining the ranks of those scholars who are "A.B.D." (all but dissertation). This prompted a shift from his seeking a literature post to library school, where he took a second Masters in Library Science. He became a librarian at the University of Madison's Wendt Engineering Library, ultimately rising to the post of Senior Academic Librarian, to which was added at his retirement the honor of Emeritus.

In addition to pursuing his degrees Richard was busy in these years with his Tolkien scholarship. He was a cofounder of the University of Wisconsin Tolkien Society, attending the first organizational meeting called by Ivor Rogers in September 1966. Among members who belonged to the group and attended its monthly meetings at some point over the decades were Ivor Rogers and Deborah Webster Rogers, Jared Lobdell, Janice Bogstad, Philip Kaveny, Matt Fisher, Hank Luttrell, Debra Daemmrich, and Kristin Thompson. Books to come out of these fans and scholars include Jared Lobdell's England and Always (1982), Deborah Rogers' J.R.R. Tolkien (Twayne English Authors Series: two editions, 1980 and...