Paul Harold Kocher (April 23, 1907 – July 17, 1998) was an American scholar, writer, and professor of English. He wrote extensively on the works of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

as well as on Elizabethan English drama, philosophy, religion, and medicine. His numerous publications include studies of Christopher Marlowe and

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

. He also authored books on the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

missions of 18th- and 19th-century California.

Biography

Born Paul Harold Kocher in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

, to German parents, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1919, later becoming a United States citizen. He attended Columbia University when very young, then pursued graduate study of law and literature at Stanford. After earning his doctorate, he taught in the United States and in England, retiring from the faculty of Stanford University in 1970. He was a recipient of fellowships from the Huntington Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and twice, in 1946 and 1955, from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1973 Kocher won the

Mythopoeic Society The Mythopoeic Society (MythSoc) is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis, all members of The Inklings, an informal group of write ...

's Scholarship in Inkling Studies Award for his book on

, '' Master of Middle-Earth''. The book was published before ''

The Silmarillion ''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavri ...

'' appeared (1977) to resolve several of the questions to which Kocher guesses the answer, usually correctly.

Books

* ''Alabado: A Story of Old California''. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1978. * ''California's Old Missions: The Story of the 21 Franciscan Missions in Alta California, 1769-1823''. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1976. * ''Christopher Marlowe: A Study of His Thought, Learning and Character." Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the Southern United States. It is a member of the As ...

, 1946. Reprinted, New York: Russell & Russell, 1962. * '' Master of Middle-Earth: The Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien''. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, 1972. :—— published in Britain as ''Master of Middle-Earth: The Achievement of J. R. R. Tolkien''. London:

Thames and Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, 1973. :—— reprinted several times, such as in New York: Ballantine Books, 1977; New York: Del Rey, 1982 and 2003; and London: Pimlico, 2002. :—— translated into French by Jean Markale as ''Le royaume de la terre du milieu: Les clés de l'oeuvre de J.R.R. Tolkien.'' Paris: Retz, 1981. :—— translated into Italian, ''Il maestro della Terra di Mezzo'', Rome: Bompiani, 2011. :—— translated into Swedish by Åke Ohlmarks, ''Tolkiens sagovärld: En vägledning''. Stockholm: AWE/Geber, 1989; and Stockholm: Geber, 1973. :—— translated into Dutch by

Max Schuchart Max Schuchart (16 August 1920 – 25 February 2005) was a Dutch journalist, literary critic and translator. He is most famous for translating the works of J. R. R. Tolkien into the Dutch language. Life He was born on 16 August 1920 in Rotter ...

, ''Tolkien: Meester van midden-aarde: Zijn romans en verhalen''. The Hague: Bert Bakker, 1973. :—— translated into Polish by Radosław Kot as ''Mistrz Śródziemia''. Warsaw: Amber, 1998. * ''Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, 1772-1972: A Historical Sketch''. San Luis Obispo, California: Blake, 1972. * ''A Reader's Guide to The Silmarillion''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. * ''Science and Religion in Elizabethan England''. San Marino, California:

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Ma ...

, 1953. * (edited) ''The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus'', by Christopher Marlowe. New York:

Appleton-Century-Crofts Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. was a division of the Meredith Publishing Company. It is a result of the merger of Appleton-Century Company with F.S. Crofts Co. in 1948. Prior to that The Century Company had merged with D. Appleton & Company in ...

, 1950.

Articles

* "Adult Themes in a Tale To Be Read to Children." ''Readings on J.R.R. Tolkien'', ed. Katie De Koster. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2000. * "Backgrounds for Marlowe's Atheist Lecture." ''Philological Quarterly'' 20.3 (July 1941): 304-324. * "Christopher Marlowe, Individualist." ''University of Toronto Quarterly'' 17 (Jan. 1948): 110-120. * "The Druedain." ''Mythlore: A Journal of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and the Genres of Myth and Fantasy Studies'' 10.3 (Winter 1984): 23-25. * "The Early Date for Marlowe's ''Faustus''." ''Modern Language Notes'' 58.7 (Nov. 1943): 539-542. * "The English ''Faust Book'' and the Date of Marlowe's ''Faustus''." ''Modern Language Notes'' 55.2 (Feb. 1940): 95-101. * "English Legal History in Marlowe's ''Jew of Malta''." ''Huntington Library Quarterly: A Journal for the History and Interpretation of English and American Civilization'' 26 (1963): 155-163. * "Francis Bacon and His Father." ''The Huntington Library Quarterly'' 21.2 (Feb. 1958): 133-158. * "Francis Bacon on the Drama" in ''Essays on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Drama in Honor of Hardin Craig,'' ed. Richard Hosley. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1962. 297-307. * "Francis Bacon on the Science of Jurisprudence." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 18.1 (Jan. 1957): 3-26. * "François Hotman and Marlowe's ''The Massacre at Paris''." ''PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America'' 56.2 (June 1941): 349-368. * "J. R. R. Tolkien and George MacDonald." ''Mythlore: A Journal of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and the Genres of Myth and Fantasy Studies'' 8.3 (Autumn 1981): 3-4. * "Humor in ''Tamburlaine''." in ''Shakespeare's Contemporaries: Modern Studies in English Renaissance Drama,'' ed. Max Bluestone and Norman Rabkin. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1970. * "The Idea of God in Elizabethan Medicine." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 11.1 (Jan. 1950): 3-29. * "Lady Macbeth and the Doctor." ''Shakespeare Quarterly'' 5.4 (Fall 1954): 341-349. * "Marlowe's Art of War." ''Studies in Philology'' 39.2 (April 1942): 207-225. * "Marlowe's Atheist Lecture." ''The Journal of English and Germanic Philology'' 39 (Jan. 1940): 98-106. Reprinted in ''Marlowe: A Collection of Critical Essays,'' ed. Clifford Leech. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964. * "Middle-Earth: An Imaginary World?" in ''Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism'', ed. Rose A Zimbardo and Neil David Isaacs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. * "A Mythology for England." in ''J.R.R. Tolkien'', ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2000. * "The Old Cosmos: A Study in Elizabethan Science and Religion." ''The Huntington Library Quarterly'' 15.2 (Feb. 1952): 101-121. * "Paracelsan Medicine in England: The First Thirty Years (ca. 1570-1600)." ''Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences'' 7.4 (1947): 451-480. * "The Physician as Atheist in Elizabethan England." ''The Huntington Library Quarterly'' 10.3 (May 1947): 229-249. * "Sauron et la nature du mal." ''QUESTION DE'' 42 (May 1981). * "Some Nashe Marginalia Concerning Marlowe." ''Modern Language Notes'' 57.2 (Jan. 1942): 45-49. * "Use of the Bible in English Astronomical Treatises During the Renaissance." ''The Huntington Library Quarterly'' 9.2 (Feb. 1946): 109-120. * "The Witchcraft Basis in Marlowe's ''Faustus''." ''Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to Research in Medieval and Modern Literature'' 38.1 (1940): 9-36.

References

External links

Memorial Resolution from Stanford University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocher, Paul H Tolkien studies 1907 births 1998 deaths American academics of English literature Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States Columbia University alumni Stanford University alumni Stanford University faculty