Which son of J.R.R. Tolkien edited and published much of his father’s later work?

Christopher Tolkien edited and published much of J.R.R. Tolkien’s later work.

Christopher Tolkien was the third child of J.R.R. Tolkien and Edith Tolkien. He became his father’s literary executor and spent decades organizing, editing, and preparing unpublished writings for publication after Tolkien’s death in 1973.

His most famous editorial project was The Silmarillion, published in 1977. The book assembled and shaped Tolkien’s extensive mythology of the First Age and earlier history of Middle-earth. Christopher also edited the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth, which documents drafts, revisions, abandoned ideas, and changing versions of the legendarium.

Christopher had a close knowledge of the material because his father shared manuscripts with him, and he contributed maps to The Lord of the Rings. He also served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and later taught French and Old English.

Readers sometimes treat The Silmarillion as a novel finalized by J.R.R. Tolkien alone. In fact, Christopher made significant editorial decisions because the work existed in multiple, sometimes unfinished forms.