Tolkien criticism appeared in stages, initially in the form of book reviews, then scholarly studies, and, most recently, retrospective reviews. The scholarly genre has a different audience in mind, and that must be accounted for. With reviews, it is useful to read one or two other reviews by the same author to see how their personal slant affects their reading of Tolkien.
- C.S. Lewis, "The Gods Return to Earth", Time and Tide, 14 August 1954.
- Edwin Muir, The Observer [London], 22 August 1954.
- Edwin Muir, The Observer [London], 27 November 1955.
- Orville Prescott, "Books of the Times", The New York Times, 2 November 1954.
- Anonymous, Times Literary Supplement, 25 November 1955.
- Edmund Wilson, The Nation, 14 April 1956.
- Philip Toynbee, The Observer [London], 6 August 1961.
- C.N. Manlove, Modern Fantasy (1975).
- George H. Thomson, "Early Reviews of Books by J.R.R. Tolkien", Mythlore 41 (Winter-Spring, 1985), 59-61.
- Jane Chance, "Critical Reception", chapter 3 in The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power (New York, 1992).
- Anthony Lane, "The Hobbit Habit", The New Yorker, 10 December, 2001.
- Jenny Turner, "The Hobbit Habit", Times Literary Supplement 23:22, 15 November 2001 (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n22/turn2322.htm).
- Andrew O’Hehir, "The Book of the Century", Salon.com, 4 June 2002 (http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/04/tolkien/).
- There is also a selection of articles from the New York Times on the New York Times Tolkien Page.