Christopher Tolkien was a British author and editor, the third son of J. R. R. Tolkien, and the man most responsible for bringing his father's vast unpublished mythology to readers. Appointed his father's literary executor following J. R. R. Tolkien's death in 1973, he dedicated the remainder of his long life to the organisation, editing, and publication of an extraordinary body of posthumous work. His most significant achievement was The Silmarillion, published in 1977, which assembled the mythological and historical framework underlying Lord of the Rings. He followed this with the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth series, an exhaustive account of how his father's world developed across decades of writing and revision, invaluable to serious students of the work. Christopher Tolkien approached his editorial role with exceptional scholarly rigour and a deep reluctance to impose his own judgement on his father's material, preferring transparency over tidiness. He died in January 2020 at the age of ninety-five.