In Tolkien and the Silmarillion, Clyde S. Kirby spins his remembrance of a summer's close personal acquaintance with J.R.R. Tolkien into an intimate portrait of the writer whose mythic universe has kindled the imagination of a vast audience. Here Kirby not only provides a rich diversity of clues to the content of that looked-for magnus opus, The Silmarillion, but elaborates on Tolkien's personal and literary relationships with his contemporaries, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams.

As we accompany Professor Kilby up the walk and through the door into the Tolkien home and office in Oxford, we are shown a series of swift images, like color slides, which allow us tantalizing glimpses of the scholar story-teller himself, and in which we view the gleaming mysteries of Middle Earth, down through its successive ages.