Humphrey Carpenter

Humphrey Carpenter studied at Keble College, Dragon School and Marlborough College. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are children's, biography and historical non-fiction. Residence is recorded at Farndon Road. Works named in the authority record are J. Tolkien: A Biography. Distinctions recorded are E. Forster Award, Somerset Maugham Award and Duff Cooper Prize.

• Name — Humphrey Carpenter • Birth Name — Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter • Born — 29 April 1946 • Birthplace — Oxford, England • Died — 4 January 2005 • Place of death — Oxford, England • Occupation — Writer, biographer and broadcaster • Education — Keble College, Oxford • Notable Works — J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography Mr Majeika

Humphrey Carpenter was born in the city of Oxford, England. His father was Harry Carpenter, Bishop of Oxford. His mother was Urith Monica Trevelyan, who had training in the Fröbel teaching method. As a child, he lived in the Warden's Lodgings at Keble College, Oxford, where his father served as warden until his appointment as Bishop of Oxford. He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford and Marlborough College. He returned to Oxford to read English at Keble College.

Carpenter began his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Oxford as a presenter and producer. They jointly produced A Thames Companion in 1975. He hosted Radio 3's arts discussion programme Night Waves and acted as a regular presenter of other programmes on the network including Radio 3's afternoon drivetime programme In Tune and, until it was discontinued, its Sunday request programme Listeners' Choice. Until his death, he presented the BBC Radio 4 biography series Great Lives recorded in Bristol. The last edition recorded before his death featured an interview with the singer Eddi Reader about the poet Robert Burns, the major focus of her creative work. BBC Radio 4 broadcast this programme on New Year's Eve, 2004.

Carpenter was an amateur jazz musician who played the piano, the saxophone, and the double-bass, the last instrument professionally in a dance band in the 1970s. In 1983, he formed a 1930s style jazz band, Vile Bodies, which for many years enjoyed a residency at the Ritz Hotel in London. He also founded the Mushy Pea Theatre Group, a children's drama group based in Oxford, which premiered his Mr Majeika: The Musical in 1991 and Babes, a musical about Hollywood child stars.

Carpenter's biographies included J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977; also editing of The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien), The Inklings: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and their Friends (1978; winner of the 1978 Somerset Maugham Award), W. H. Auden (1981), Ezra Pound (1988; winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize), Evelyn Waugh (1989), Benjamin Britten (1992), Robert Runcie (1997), Dennis Potter, and Spike Milligan (2004). He authored Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s (1987); his last book was The Seven Lives of John Murray (2008) about John Murray and the publishing house of Albemarle Street; it was published posthumously. He wrote histories of BBC Radio 3, the British satire boom of the 1960s, Angry Young Men: A Literary Comedy of the 1950s (2002), and a centennial history of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1985. Carpenter's account of the period of Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, A. A. Milne and Frances Hodgson Burnett, Secret Gardens, was published in 1985. He edited The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (1984) jointly with his wife, Mari Prichard.

Carpenter married Mari Prichard, daughter of the poet Caradog Prichard, in 1973; the marriage produced two daughters. He died in 2005 of heart failure, compounded by the Parkinson's disease from which he had suffered for several years. He was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford, also the final resting place of J. R. R. Tolkien. A commemorative stained-glass window was installed in St Margaret's Institute, Polstead Road, honouring Carpenter's many accomplishments.

• A Thames Companion (with Mari Prichard; Oxford Illustrated, 1975) • The Joshers; or London to Birmingham with Albert and Victoria: A Story of the Canals (George Allen & Unwin, 1977) • J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (George Allen & Unwin, 1977) • The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and Their Friends (George Allen & Unwin, 1978) • Jesus (Past Masters Series; Oxford University Press, 1980) • W. H. Auden. A Biography (George Allen & Unwin, 1981) • The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (editor; George Allen & Unwin, 1981) • The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (with Mari Prichard; Oxford University Press, 1984) • O.U.D.S.: A Centenary History of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (Oxford University Press, 1985) • Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature (George Allen & Unwin, 1985) • Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s (Unwin Hyman, 1987) • A Serious Character: Ezra Pound (Faber & Faber, 1988) • The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989) • Benjamin Britten. A Biography (Faber & Faber, 1992) • Shakespeare, Without the Boring Bits (Viking Children's Books, 1994) • The Puffin Book of Classic Children's Stories (Viking Children's Books, 1996) • Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop (Hodder & Stoughton, 1996) • The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996) • Dennis Potter. The Authorized Biography (Faber & Faber, 1998) • That Was Satire That Was: Beyond the Fringe, the Establishment Club, Private Eye and That Was the Week That Was (Gollancz, 2000) • (US edition) A Great, Silly Grin: The British Satire Boom of the 1960s (PublicAffairs, 2002) • The Angry Young Men: A Literary Comedy of the 1950s (Allen Lane, 2002) • Spike Milligan. The Biography (Hodder & Stoughton, 2003) • The Seven Lives of John Murray: The Story of a Publishing Dynasty (John Murray, 2008)

The authorities additionally record the heading Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Harry Carpenter and Urith Trevelyan. He married Mari Christina Prichard. 2 children are recorded: Clare Nia Carpenter and Katherine Sioned Carpenter.

Humphrey Carpenter is classed in the genre historical non-fiction literature. Recorded with the occupation children's writer. Recorded with the occupation radio personality. Recorded with the occupation jazz musician. Classed in the genre biography. Recorded as having received E. Forster Award, Somerset Maugham Award and Duff Cooper Prize.