Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien (18 June 1929 – 28 February 2022) was a British literary preservationist and the youngest child ofJ. R. R. Tolkien.
Priscilla Tolkien was born on 18 June 1929, to J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) and his wife,Edith Tolkien (1889–1971), being their youngest child and only daughter.[1]
J. R. R. Tolkien was very devoted to his children and sent them illustratedletters from Father Christmas when they were young.[2]
When Priscilla was 14, she helped her father by typing out some early chapters ofThe Lord of the Rings. The name ofFrodo Baggins in the fourth draft ofThe Lord of the Rings was Bingo Bolger-Baggins, which was derived from a family of toy bears owned by Priscilla. She completed her B.A. degree in English atLady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 1951.[3]
In July–August 1955, she accompanied her father on a two-week holiday inItaly. After that, she started living in Oxford away from her parents' house but still saw them frequently and started working as aprobation officer in the city.[4] She was also a social worker.
Priscilla Tolkien died on 28 February 2022, unmarried, at the age of 92. She was the last living child of J. R. R. Tolkien.[1][5]
Tolkien wrote his last letter to Priscilla in August 1973.[6] She was, until her death, thehonoraryvice-president ofthe Tolkien Society.[7] She wrote an article titled "My Father the Artist" in December 1976 forAmon Hen, the bulletin of the Tolkien Society. After her eldest brother, John, returned to Oxford in 1987, the siblings began identifying and cataloging the large collection of family photographs. In 1992, she and John published the bookThe Tolkien Family Album, containing pictures of the Tolkien family, to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of their father. The same year she unveiled a plaque at the Anglican Cathedral of St. Andrew and St. Michael commemorating the centenary birth anniversary celebrations of her father at his birthplace ofBloemfontein, South Africa. She launched the special Tolkien editionRoyal Mail stamps commemorating her father's works in February 2004.[8] In 2012, she, along with a coalition of British publishers, suedWarner Brothers for US$80 million in her capacity as a trustee ofThe Tolkien Trust, accusing them of exploiting Middle-earth characters to promote online gambling.[9]
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