Copyright 2006-2008 by David Berberick.  All rights reserved.
Surveying Middle-earth.com is not affiliated in anyway with Tolkien Enterprises, Inc.
or The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate Limited, whose rights are fully acknowledged.
To report problems with this website, please send a message to david (at) surveyingmiddle-earth.com.
Over 150 million copies of J.R.R. Tolkien's books have been sold since the first publication
of The Hobbit in 1937.*

Why is Tolkien so popular? Why has his "Secondary World," Middle-earth, fascinated tens
of millions of people for over 70 years? The only way to answer these questions is to ask his
readers.

I will not write an analysis of Tolkien fans, however.  My goal has not been to gather
evidence to support a certain literary theory.

I intend to write something closer to an oral history than a sociological study.  I'm talking
with people, not just collecting data.


(*Harry Man, HarperCollins UK, March 12, 2008.  Private communication with the author.)