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American librarian and Tolkien scholar (1944–2020) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard Carroll West (August 13, 1944 – November 29, 2020) was an American librarian and one of the first Tolkien scholars.[1] He is best known for his 1975 essay on the interlace structure of The Lord of the Rings, for which he won the 1976 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inkling Studies.
Richard Carroll West was born on August 13, 1944.[2] He was educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[1] He began studying J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium in 1968, visiting the Tolkien archives at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin many times from then for some 45 years.[3] He edited Orcrist, the journal of the University of Wisconsin Tolkien Society; he co-founded that society in 1966.[1][4][5] He worked for many years as serials and technical services librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, alongside his Tolkien studies.[1]
West was part of the group of science fiction fans and scholars who founded WisCon, the first feminist science fiction convention, held in February of 1977. He married Harriet Perri Corrick, a fellow fan, in 1977. He died from COVID-19 in Madison, Wisconsin, on November 29, 2020, where he was being treated for a chronic illness.[1][6]
Jared Lobdell, in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, wrote that "at least one observer has suggested that the best single essay in Tolkien criticism is Richard C. West's 1975 "The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings". He noted that at the time West was studying under "the expert in entrelacement", Eugène Vinaver. Lobdell describes the essay as scholarly form-criticism, so useful that it does not belong to the category of [negative] "criticism" as commonly understood.[8] The Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi similarly described West's article on interlacing as a "key article" in Tolkien scholarship.[9] Librarian and Tolkien scholar David Bratman described it as "one of the pioneering studies in Tolkien's use of medieval literary techniques".[10]
Another well-known Tolkien scholar, John D. Rateliff, called him "one of the best of the best of Tolkien scholars."[6] A checklist of works by West was published in 2005 by Douglas A. Anderson.[11]
West contributed chapters to the following scholarly books:
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