Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Christopher Tolkien, son of literary giant J.R.R. Tolkien and executor of his estate, died at age 95, the Tolkien Society announced Thursday.
The World War II veteran, literary scholar and Oxford University professor edited and published his father's unfinished work from the time the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit creator died in 1973 through 2018.
"All of us in the Tolkien Society will share in the sadness at the news of Christopher Tolkien's death, and we send our condolences to Baillie, Simon, Adam, Rachel and the whole Tolkien family at this difficult time," Tolkien Society Chairman Shaun Gunner said in a statement.
"Christopher's commitment to his father's works have seen dozens of publications released, and his own work as an academic in Oxford demonstrates his ability and skill as a scholar. Millions of people around the world will be forever grateful to Christopher for bringing us The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, The History of Middle-earth series and many others. We have lost a titan and he will be sorely missed."
The British division of HarperCollins Publishers said Tolkien supervised the publication of 24 editions of his father's works, many of which became international bestsellers.
"Christopher was an editor from the age of 5, catching inconsistencies in his father's bedtime tales, and was promised tuppence by his father for every mistake he noticed in The Hobbit. As a young man, he was typing up manuscripts and drawing maps of Middle-earth and around the time he was commissioned an officer in the RAF in 1945, his father was already calling him 'my chief critic and collaborator,'" the publisher said in a statement.
Amazon Prime, which is working on a new Lord of the Rings TV series, expressed on Twitter its sorrow at the news of Tolkien's death.
"Christopher Tolkien's contributions to the world and to Middle-earth are incalculable. We are so grateful for his passion. He will be dearly missed," the streaming service tweeted.
