I am grateful to Tom Shippey, who remains at the forefront of Tolkien scholarship, for his many years of indispensible scholarly work that is at once profoundly insightful and very enjoyable to read, and also for his personal encouragement (and occasional suggestions) over the past few years; to several other scholars and writers who, through talks and essays and especially personal conversations, have contributed to my understanding, including Jonathan Evans, Christopher Vaccaro, Charles Taliaferro, Michael Drout, David Bratman, Colin Duriez, Peter Kreeft, Thomas Howard, Sandra Miesel, and Paul Kerry; to literary colleagues at Middlebury College for many other stimulating conversations about Tolkien and related literary topics, especially Professors Kathy Skubikowski, John Elder, and Dan Brayton; to many years of Middlebury College students who have taken my Tolkien classes and made the effort to write insightful papers and engage in class discussions; to numerous readers as well as critics of Following Gandalf for their comments; to the late Professor Marion Singleton (of Dartmouth College), to whom I am greatly indebted for her teaching on writing, and literature, and writing about literature, and for investing in me as a person; and finally to my good friend David O’Hara for his friendship over the years, not only for the frequent discussions about philosophy, myth, and literature, but even more for the numerous times when we went fishing instead of discussing philosophy, myth, or literature.
Matthew Dickerson, September 2011