{"id":97494,"date":"2016-04-28T16:48:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T20:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=97494"},"modified":"2016-04-28T17:42:32","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T21:42:32","slug":"lord-of-the-wireless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/28\/lord-of-the-wireless\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord of the Wireless"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the many treasures preserved in the British Library\u2019s audio archive is this vintage lesson in<\/a> \u201cEnglish Conversation.\u201d As a document of instruction, it\u2019s interesting enough. But it also bears the distinction of being an early recording of J. R. R. Tolkien.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, Tolkien would go on to international fame and fortune for his fiction, all of which was informed by his fascination with language and history. But in 1929, he was known as a respected professor and lecturer, making a little extra money as a contributor to the\u00a0Linguaphone Conversational Course,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>a series\u00a0issued on seventy-eights by the Linguaphone Institute of London.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On these recordings, the thirty-eight-year-old Tolkien (who worked on them with fellow professor James A. Lloyd) not only provides introductions, but plays one of the \u201croles\u201d in the sample conversations. Now, the \u201cwireless\u201d might not exactly provide a scintillating<\/em>\u00a0sample conversation\u2014to mention one\u2019s interest in early radio technology today would, indeed, bring most social encounters to a grinding halt\u2014but as played digitally, in 2016, it\u2019s a source of both postmodern and historical interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the many treasures preserved in the British Library\u2019s audio archive is this vintage lesson in \u201cEnglish Conversation.\u201d As a document of instruction, it\u2019s interesting enough. But it also bears the distinction of being an early recording of J. R. R. Tolkien.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[4846,17745,1983,5657,22120,22121,339,14627,22122],"class_list":["post-97494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-britain","tag-british-museum","tag-conversation","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-james-a-lloyd","tag-linguaphone-institute-of-london","tag-radio","tag-recordings","tag-wireless"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJ. R. R. 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