College and Research Libraries 422 I Colle ge & Research Libraries • November 1970 Neal is more interested in the trees than the forest-particularly British trees. It is highly doubtful that these works will be of any value to librarians in this country. Some of Thompson is acceptable as an in- troduction to librarianship for the neophyte. For others, the most one could do is to ac- quaint one's self with some general atti- tudes of British librarians toward a number of British library problems.-Gustave A. Harrer, U nwersity of Florida. Physical Sciences. The Royal Institution, Library of Science (being the Friday Evening Discourses in Physical Sciences held at the Royal Institution: 1851- 1939). Ed. by William Lawrence Bragg and George Porter. Barking, Essex, England: Elsevier Publishing Co., Ltd. 1970. 10v., illustrated. £63. Visualize a crisp winter evening in 1860, a warm room filled with the sweet aroma of pipes and cigars, and several men dis- cussing the evening's agenda. On this par- ticular evening, one of the speakers is John Tyndall who is to speak on "The Influence of Magnetic Force on the Electric Charge." Sir Tyndall's discourse is only one of sev- eral that will be presented for discussion this evening, and is, as are many of the discourses, an illustrated lecture. You can place yourself in this room by reading a report of Tyndall's discourse plus those of Faraday, Brodie, Maxwell, Spottiswodde, Kelvin, Rayleigh, Rutherford, Heilbron, and many others, which are in the ten-volume work, Physical Sciences. The discourses cover physics and chem- istry and are either in the form of a de- scriptive abstract or in the complete text. The eighty-nine years covered encompass a span of time which saw a change from classical physics to new physics and the emergence of the basic concepts of struc- tural organic chemistry and valency. "This series of Discourses therefore represents a cross section of the growth of physics and chemistry in the latter half of the nine- teenth century and the first half of the twentieth century and represents a great turning point in the history of the physical sciences." The ten volumes are arranged in chron- ological order with a table of contents in each volume. The lack of a general index does prevent the scholar from locating a particular essay when he is not sure of the exact date. Three additional series are now in preparation covering Astronomy, Earth Sciences, and Biological Science. After pub- lication of these, further discourses will be published in four series covering Medical Sciences, Social Sciences, Applied Sciences, and History and Philosophy of Science. For the history of science scholars, this collection of "Friday Evening Discourses" should prove to be a valuable source of information. It is unfortunate that the fifty years prior to 1851 had no regular publica- tion of accounts or abstracts of presented lectures to be preserved in the manner that Sir William Bragg has done so well.- H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Kan- sas. Tolkien Criticism. An Annotated Check- list (The Serif Series, no. 11). By Rich- ard C. West. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1970. 73p. $4.25. Richard West compiles the writings and criticism of J. R. R. Tolkien, whose mete- oric rise in popularity in this country fol- lowed the paperback reprinting of his tril- ogy, Lord of the Rings, in 1965. Tolkien Criticism aptly serves as a chronicle of the Tolkien phenomenon, and the author has chosen a fitting time to release his bibliog- raphy-late enough to capture important recent criticism of Tolkien's works, but prompt enough to provide the scholar and Tolkien enthusiast with a most welcome symposium when interest in this English author is running high. Interest in J. R. R. Tolkien extends far beyond the characters and plot of the Rings trilogy, but there is little doubt that the trilogy has become the focal point for seri- ous discussion of the man and his works. The American paperback reprinting of Lord of the Rings, by Ace and Ballantine in 1965, ten years after its original publica- tion, caught the college campuses in the right mood for a whopping good tale of high adventure, set in a colorful fairyland populated with no end of interesting folk, very good or very evil. The Tolkien craze was on, and there were fan clubs, buttons, toys, and music (there is a Ballad of Bilbo Baggins by Leonard N imoy. See West's checklist, p. 23). But, as Mr. West's biblio- graphical annotation makes very clear, Tol- kien on another level was the subject of much scholarly dissertation by a host of literary critics during this same period. Lit- erature (fantasy, allegory, mythology); linguistics (speech and music) ; philosophy and psychology (good and evil, power, morality, commitment, the will to act); and religion (Christianity, although never men- tioned by name in LOTR, life and death) -these are some of the topics by which Tolkien is discussed, whether the author intended quite all of this or not. The Tol- kien craze is over now, but the Tolkien phenomenon may not be. Critical works are still being written; Mr. West cites addi- tional works in his foreword and addenda, which were received too late for inclusion in the main bibliography. Furthermore, Tolkien reportedly is working on another major work. Supplementing the alphabetically ar- ranged bibliography of critical works, Mr. West includes a bibliography of Tolkien's writings ( 1922- ) . The latter is arranged chronologically, and this reviewer would have preferred to see the main bibliog- raphy arranged this way as well (with an author index) in order to illuminate the various literary "stages" of Tolkien criti- cism, e.g., book reviews, -1956; general criticism, 1957-64; widespread popularity, 1965-68; intense criticism, 1965- . This suggestion, however, is minor, because the annotations Mr. West chose to include (sometimes the critic's own words) are quite adequate in describing the content of the article or monograph. In addition, the author marks the citations he believes most valuable for Tolkien scholarship, whether favorable or unfavorable to the man. The bibliography does not include articles ap- pearing in the numerous fan magazines, but Mr. West covers the names and general content of these "fanzines" in the foreword. There are two indexes-one for book re- views on individual works by Tolkien, and Recent Publications I 423 the other for titles of all articles cited in the bibliography. It is clear from his search strategy and background in Tolkieniana that Mr. West's bibliographical checklist is authoritative. It should be well received by all who know or wish to know Tolkien.-Dederick C. Ward, University of Colorado. BOOKS RECEIVED NoTE: The titles listed represent books re- ceived at the editorial office that may be of interest to academic librarians. Annual Report of the Librarian of Con- gress, for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1969. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970. 161p. $3.75. Baxter, Ivy. The Arts of an Island: The Development of the Culture and of the Folk and Creative Arts in Jamaica 1494- 1962 (Independence). Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1970. 407p. (ISBN 0- 8108-0303-8) . Benton, Rita, ed. Directory of Music Re- search Libraries Part II: Thirteen Eu- ropean Countries. (Preliminary Ed.) Under auspices of International Associ- ation of Music Libraries. Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa, 1970. 235p. (paper- bound). Birkle, John, ed. Computer Applications in Management. Princeton, N.Y.: Brandon/ Systems, 1970. 165p. $8.95. Bixler, Paul. Proposed Library Standards and Growth Patterns for Maryland Pub- lic Higher Education Institutions. Spon- sored by the Maryland Council for High- er Education Library Study. Baltimore: 1970. 86p. (paperbound). Britain 1970: An Official Handbook. Pre- pared by the Central Office of Informa- tion. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1970. 522p. (SBN 11-700080-9). Brown, Eleanor Frances. Modern Branch Libraries and Libraries in Systems. Me- tuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1970. 7 47p. $15.00. Burich, Nancy J. Alexander the Great: A Bibliography. Ohio: Kent State Univ. Press, 1970. 153p. (ISBN 0-87338-103- 3).