Humphrey Carpenter

Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inklings. He won a Mythopoeic Award for his book The Inklings in 1982.

Early life

Humphrey Carpenter was born in the city of Oxford, England. His father was Harry Carpenter, Bishop of Oxford. His mother was Urith Monica Trevelyan, who had training in the Fröbel teaching method. As a child, he lived in the Warden's Lodgings at Keble College, Oxford, where his father served as warden until his appointment as Bishop of Oxford. They jointly produced A Thames Companion in 1975. A commemorative stained-glass window was installed in St Margaret's Institute, Polstead Road, honouring Carpenter's many accomplishments.

Selected works

A Thames Companion (with Mari Prichard; Oxford Illustrated, 1975) The Joshers; or London to Birmingham with Albert and Victoria: A Story of the Canals (George Allen & Unwin, 1977) J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (George Allen & Unwin, 1977) The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends (George Allen & Unwin, 1978) Jesus (Past Masters Series; Oxford University Press, 1980) W. H. Auden. A Biography (George Allen & Unwin, 1981) The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (editor; George Allen & Unwin, 1981) The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (with Mari Prichard; Oxford University Press, 1984) O.U.D.S.: A Centenary History of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (Oxford University Press, 1985) Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature (George Allen & Unwin, 1985) Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s (Unwin Hyman, 1987) A Serious Character: Ezra Pound (Faber & Faber, 1988) The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989) Benjamin Britten. A Biography (Faber & Faber, 1992) Shakespeare, Without the Boring Bits (Viking Children's Books, 1994) The Puffin Book of Classic Children's Stories (Viking Children's Books, 1996) Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop (Hodder & Stoughton, 1996) The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996) Dennis Potter. The Authorized Biography (Faber & Faber, 1998) That Was Satire That Was: Beyond the Fringe, the Establishment Club, Private Eye and That Was the Week That Was (Gollancz, 2000) (US edition) A Great, Silly Grin: The British Satire Boom of the 1960s (PublicAffairs, 2002) The Angry Young Men: A Literary Comedy of the 1950s (Allen Lane, 2002) Spike Milligan. The Biography (Hodder & Stoughton, 2003) The Seven Lives of John Murray: The Story of a Publishing Dynasty (John Murray, 2008)