David Day (Canadian author)

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David Day (born October 1947) [1] is a Canadian author and poet. He is best known for his books on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. [2] Day has published 46 books that have sold over 3 million copies. [3]

Contents

Early life

David Day was born and raised in Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. [4] His father worked as chief fireman for area military bases. [5] Day was editor of his high school's newspaper, and also contributed high school sports columns to the Victoria Daily Times , [6] graduating from Victoria High School in 1966. [7] After finishing high school, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating in 1976 from the University of Victoria. [8]

Career

Day has published over 46 books of poetry, natural history, ecology, mythology, fantasy and children's literature. Day has been a columnist for Punch . [9] He is best known for his books on the life and works of J. R. R. Tolkien. [10]

In 2015, Day received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Victoria. [8]

Works on Tolkien

Day has published at least 15 books pertaining to Middle-earth, the world created by Tolkien. His first book, A Tolkien Bestiary, released in 1979, is an illustrated reference book on Middle-earth's fauna, flora and people. The book has been translated in 20 languages and reprinted numerous times since. [11] The Dutch version reached the best-seller list. [12]

The Tolkien family's publishers, HarperCollins, commissioned Day to write The Hobbit Companion, but dropped the book when Christopher Tolkien objected and threatened a lawsuit. [5] [13] Day was forced into bankruptcy by the protracted legal battle. [14] [5] [15] He later found another publisher for the book, [5] and the rewritten version was approved by the Tolkien estate. [16] With the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, Day's 2019 An Encyclopedia of Tolkien debuted on the Toronto Star's list of bestselling books in Canada on October 12, 2022. [17]

Other books

Day's first book of poetry, The Cowichan, was based on a journal he kept during his logging years. [6] He collaborated with Japanese artist Warabe Aska on three children's books, writing poems to accompany Aska's illustrations. [6]

Day explored his theory that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written in mathematical code in his book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Decoded, [5] based on 18 years of research studying more than 1,000 different editions of Carroll's book. [18]

Reception

Time magazine and The Observer named Day's The Doomsday Book of Animals the critics' book of the year in 1981. [6]

Colin Tudge, writing in New Scientist reviewed The Doomsday Book of Animals, writing:

The fate of D. Maximus provides one of the most poignant case-histories among the three hundred extinctions taking place over a mere three centuries that David Day describes in his outstanding The Doomsday Book of Animals. [19]

A review in Quill & Quire wrote of Nevermore:

Best known as the author of the Doomsday Book of Animals, poet and naturalist David Day returns to the subject of extinction with a frankly unclassifiable volume that combines primary texts, prose, and poetry. Taking the form of a 24-hour meditative vigil of the kind practiced by the Coptic Orthodox Church, each section in the book is devoted to a species of animal that has gone extinct during the time that homo sapiens has walked the earth. ... Nevermore is one of the most original and striking books of the year. [20]

Books

Personal life

Day is married to Róisín Magill [21] and has a daughter. [9] As of 2020, he lives in Toronto. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. R. R. Tolkien</span> English writer and philologist (1892–1973)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

<i>The Lord of the Rings</i> 1954–1955 fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.

<i>The Hobbit</i> 1937 book by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. The book is recognized as a classic in children's literature and is one of the best-selling books of all time, with over 100 million copies sold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandalf</span> Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.

In the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, a warg is a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by orcs. He derived the name and characteristics of his wargs by combining meanings and myths from Old Norse and Old English. In Norse mythology, a vargr is a wolf, especially the wolf Fenrir that destroyed the god Odin in the battle of Ragnarök, and the wolves Sköll and Hati, Fenrir's children, who perpetually chase the Sun and Moon. In Old English, a wearh is an outcast who may be strangled to death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonely Mountain</span> Fictional mountain home of dwarves and dragon in J. R. R. Tolkiens The Hobbit

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain northeast of Mirkwood. It is the location of the Dwarves' Kingdom under the Mountain and the town of Dale lies in a vale on its southern slopes. In The Lord of the Rings, the mountain is called by the Sindarin name Erebor. The Lonely Mountain is the destination of the protagonists, including the titular Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and is the scene of the novel's climax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bilbo Baggins</span> Protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkiens The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, and the fictional narrator of many of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. The Hobbit is selected by the wizard Gandalf to help Thorin and his party of Dwarves to reclaim their ancestral home and treasure, which has been seized by the dragon Smaug. Bilbo sets out in The Hobbit timid and comfort-loving, and through his adventures grows to become a useful and resourceful member of the quest.

<i>The Return of the King</i> 1955 part of novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. It was published in 1955. The story begins in the kingdom of Gondor, which is soon to be attacked by the Dark Lord Sauron.

<i>Unfinished Tales</i> 1980 collection of unfinished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, are immense birds that are sapient and can speak. The Great Eagles resemble actual eagles, but are much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms. Elsewhere, the Eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations.

"The Scouring of the Shire" is the penultimate chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, return home to the Shire to find that it is under the brutal control of ruffians and their leader "Sharkey", revealed to be the Wizard Saruman. The ruffians have despoiled the Shire, cutting down trees and destroying old houses, as well as replacing the old mill with a larger one full of machinery which pollutes the air and the water. The hobbits rouse the Shire to rebellion, lead their fellow hobbits to victory in the Battle of Bywater, and end Saruman's rule.

Trolls are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and feature in films and games adapted from his novels. They are portrayed as monstrously large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect. In The Hobbit, like the dwarf Alviss of Norse mythology, they must be below ground before dawn or turn to stone, whereas in The Lord of the Rings they are able to face daylight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eucatastrophe</span> Sudden turn of events averting disaster

A eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events in a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible and probable doom. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe, the word traditionally used in classically inspired literary criticism to refer to the "unravelling" or conclusion of a drama's plot. For Tolkien, the term appears to have had a thematic meaning that went beyond its literal etymological meaning in terms of form. In his definition as outlined in his 1947 essay "On Fairy-Stories", eucatastrophe is a fundamental part of his conception of mythopoeia. Though Tolkien's interest is in myth, it is connected to the gospel; Tolkien calls the Incarnation of Christ the eucatastrophe of "human history" and the Resurrection the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation. The explosion of the Death Star in Star Wars, or the kiss that saves Snow White, have been characterized as eucatastrophes. Longtermists such as Owen Cotton-Barratt and Toby Ord have adopted the word to refer to any hypothetical future transition that would provide "existential hope" of not only averting human extinction, but also hope of an "efflorescence" of future abundance.

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Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Shire</span> Fictional region of hobbits

The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is in the northwest of the continent, in the region of Eriador and the Kingdom of Arnor.

Earl L. Denman was born on 11 December 1914 in Tod Inlet on Vancouver Island but grew up in England. He was a Canadian mountaineer who attempted to climb Mount Everest in 1947. By 1947 he was working as an engineer in Southern Rhodesia.

<i>The Fellowship of the Ring</i> 1954 part of novel by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The action takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth. The book was first published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom. The volume consists of a foreword, in which the author discusses his writing of The Lord of the Rings, a prologue titled "Concerning Hobbits, and other matters", and the main narrative in Book I and Book II.

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"The Shadow of the Past" is the second chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954–1955. Tolkien called it "the crucial chapter"; the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey labelled it "the vital chapter". This is because it represents both the moment that Tolkien devised the central plot of the book, and the point in the story where the protagonist, Frodo Baggins, and the reader realise that there will be a quest to destroy the Ring. A sketch of it was among the first parts of the book to be written, early in 1938; later that year, it was one of three chapters of the book that he drafted. In 1944, he returned to the chapter, adding descriptions of Gollum, the Ring, and the hunt for Gollum.

References

  1. ↑ Kritzwiser, Kay (December 20, 1984). "'Inspired knight' writes to scale mystical heights". The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. p. 6. ISSN   0319-0714. ProQuest   386418284 . Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  2. ↑ Biography at ABC Book World
  3. ↑ Parry, Malcolm (October 31, 2015). "No whines for these wines". The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver, B.C., Canada. p. 2. ProQuest   1728636271 . Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  4. ↑ Day, D. (2011). Nevermore: A Book of Hours. Fourfront Editions. p. 248 (About the Author). ISBN   978-1-926802-69-5 . Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Chamberlain, Adrian (December 20, 2001). "A Tolkien ringer". Times Colonist. Victoria, British Columbia. p. 46.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Heiman, Carolyn (October 15, 1994). "David Day: From East Sooke to expert in so many different fields". Times Colonist. Victoria, British Columbia. p. 39.
  7. ↑ King, Lee (May 13, 2018). "Vic High's illustrious Class of '55". Times Colonist. Victoria, B.C., Canada. p. 7. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  8. 1 2 "Distinguished Alumni List for 2015 – University of Victoria". UVic.ca. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  9. 1 2 White, Nancy J. (October 22, 1989). "Mad but true: How we ruin the environment". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont., Canada. p. 1. ISSN   0319-0781. ProQuest   436044376 . Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  10. 1 2 About The Author. Simon and Schuster. May 22, 2020. ISBN   9781684129997 . Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  11. ↑ "David Day". bcbooklook.com. September 22, 2016. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  12. ↑ Freedman, Adele (December 24, 1979). "The best-seller that got away David Day's Tolkien Bestiary wasn't Canadian enough for McClelland and Stewart". The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont., Canada. p. 11. ISSN   0319-0714. ProQuest   386954655 . Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  13. ↑ Sledge, Ben (February 3, 2024). "Author David Day on Tolkien, the Rings of Power, and Being Banned from the Tolkien Society". The Gamer. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
  14. ↑ "McCrum on war of the words". The Observer (London). July 6, 1997. p. 77.
  15. ↑ "The Loafer". The Guardian. July 17, 1997. p. 38.
  16. ↑ Williams, Alexandra (July 6, 1997). "Peace breaks out in Middle Earth". The Independent. London (UK), United Kingdom. p. 10. ISSN   0951-9467. ProQuest   312639578 . Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  17. ↑ "The bestselling books in Canada for the week ending Oct. 12, 2022". Toronto Star. October 12, 2022. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  18. ↑ Dedyna, Katherine (October 25, 2015). "Decoding Alice; Victoria native David Day spent 18 years studying the rabbit holes of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece". Times Colonist. Victoria, B.C., Canada. p. 1. ProQuest   1726779493 . Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  19. ↑ Tudge, Colin (October 1, 1981). "Review". New Scientist . 92 (1273): 44.
  20. ↑ "Nevermore: A Book of Hours by David Day (Fourfront Editions)". Quill & Quire . St. Joseph Media. November 29, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  21. ↑ Day, David (June 5, 2018). The Heroes of Tolkien. Thunder Bay Press. p. dedication. ISBN   9781684121045.
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