Jill here. I cannot believe this is my last post before we break for summer. This spring has gone by SO fast! Before I get into today’s post, I want to give you all a head’s up. Stephanie will be running the 100-for-100 Writing Challenge this summer. Registration will open up on Monday, may 23rd. So be ready to sign up and get into the habit of writing daily this summer!

Once upon a time, I was writing a new fantasy novel in which I made good use of my years of experience working in the fashion industry. I thought fashion magic could be a really cool concept. I was midway through working on this novel when a host of fantasy novels came out that felt too similar. They were either about tailors or about magical clothing. Books like: Spin the Dawn, Torn, A Dress for the Wicked, and All That Glitters. (These are all affiliate links.)

This development left me completely discouraged and frustrated at the bad timing. So, I set aside my fantasy novel for the time being. I knew that after a few years, I would be able to work on it again, after some time passed between the release of all those novels and pitching my new one.

(Friends, I still ADORE this book. It will be completed someday. Oh yes. I promise you.)

Well, years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien and Walt Disney released similar projects close together that would eventually make both men famous. In September 21, 1937, The Hobbit was first published. In December of that same year, What Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuted on screen. This was not only the first Disney animated feature film, it was the first animated full-length feature ever to be produced. It was revolutionary.

Tolkien went to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with C. S. Lewis, who had seen the film already. Let’s just say Lewis did not consider it a favorite. In a 1939 letter to friend, A. K. Hamilton Jenkin, Lewis gave his opinion of the film, saying, “I thought it almost inconceivably good and bad…Dwarfs ought to be ugly of course, but not in that way. And the dwarfs’ jazz party was pretty bad. I suppose it never occurred to the poor boob that you could give them any other kind of music. But all the terrifying bits were good, and the animals really most moving: and the use of shadows (of dwarfs and vultures) was real genius. What might not have come of it if this man had been educated–or even brought up in decent society?” (Source: The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2 edited by Walter Hooper, 2009)

Yowzers.

Tolkien did not like the movie either. While the two men found fault with many things in the film, it was Disney’s portrayal of dwarfs that seemed to most upset these two Oxford men who prided themselves on their scholarly achievements. They had studied history, classic literature, languages, and mythology. Tolkien, in particular, studied Germanic and Nordic myths, and it was from this research that his Middle Earth dwarfs were inspired.

It seems that Lewis and Tolkien did not think much of cartoons.

So, while Lewis and Tolkien conceded that Disney was a talented man, they felt his talents wasted. And they penned in letters their dislike of Disney’s new movie to each other and to other friends. Sadly, neither of them likely could have ever imagined they would become so famous that their personal correspondence would be published for all to read. Though I honestly doubt they would much care, so vehemently did they hold their educated opinions. They were also used to being experts on literature. They did not live in an Amazon.com world of one-star reviews. If they had, they likely wouldn’t have read them, anyway. I mean, few Amazon.com reviewers are properly educated or brought up in decent society, right?

While The Hobbit received critical acclaim after its publication, won several awards, and had excellent reviews, it did not become a global success right away.

Snow White did.

It would take decades before Tolkien’s books would become as popular. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was not published until the 1950s. Yet it wasn’t until the 1960s that Tolkien’s work became famous in the United States. Twenty-three plus years after the its release, in 1966, The Hobbit became a bestselling paperback book in the United States.

Tolkien, reportedly, disliked Walt Disney and his cartoons until the day he died. He held his grudge tightly. In a 1964 letter to Jane Louise Curry at Stanford University, Tolkien wrote that while he recognized Walt Disney’s talent, “it has always seemed to me hopelessly corrupted. Though in most of the ‘pictures’ proceeding from his studios there are admirable or charming passages, the effect of all of them is to me disgusting. Some have given me nausea…” (Source: The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader’s Guide: Volume 2 by Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond, 2006)

Walt Disney died in 1966, and the letters between Lewis and Tolkien we’re not published until 2006 and 2009. While unlikely, it could be that Disney never knew of the British authors’ disdain for his work. Or perhaps this uneducated Yankee just didn’t write many letters.

Now, this next part of this post is just me, postulating, but I can’t help but wonder if Disney’s instantaneous success and stardom rankled Tolkien a bit, especially when you consider how triggering Disney’s portrayal of dwarfs seemed to be to Tolkien. Regardless, there is a lesson here about the dangers of publicly criticizing a peer’s work, yet that is not what I’m actually planning to talk about today.

Consider the perspectives of these two very different artists. J. R. R. Tolkien was British, born in 1892. His father died when he was four, sending the family into poverty. His mother died when he was six. He had one little brother, Hilary, two years his junior. The pair grew up in England as wards of a Catholic priest. Tolkien excelled in school and college, where he primarily studied languages and eventually developed his own language. Tolkien had earned his college degree by the time World War I was in full swing. He enlisted, got married, then was sent to Somme where most of his friends died in the trenches. He caught an infection and was sent home. After the war, Tolkien got a job compiling dictionaries. He also tutored and eventually became a professor. He also started writing and creating his Elvish language and eventually wrote his novels.

Walt Disney was an American, born in 1901. He was the fourth born of five children. He grew up in Missouri in a fairly poor family, but one that was always together. Nine years younger than Tolkien, he was too young to serve in World War I, but that didn’t stop him from trying. He was so eager to fight the Kaiser that at sixteen years of age, he talked his mother into signing permission for him to join the Red Cross. By the time he arrived in Europe, however, the war had ended.

Disney had always loved doodling cartoons, which he drew for anyone he met over in Europe. He returned to Kansas City and, after working as an animator for an ad company, he started selling freelance animated advertisements to local businesses, eventually starting his own studio, Laugh-O-Gram Film, at the age of 21. The Laugh-o-Gram Film studio went bankrupt, and Walt moved to Los Angeles where he started a new studio with his brother Roy. Disney was an innovator, always eager to try something that hadn’t been done before or put a twist on a new idea. He filmed a live-action child actress in a cartoon world in Alice in Cartoonland. And when the first talking pictures began to release, he added sound to his cartoon Steamboat Willie. Disney wanted to make movies, so he began work on the first feature-length animated film. Skeptical competitors thought the project would fail and deemed it “Disney’s Folly,” yet when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released, it briefly held the record of highest-grossing sound film at the time.

Tolkien’s response to Disney’s film seems triggering to me. I cannot help but see him as a character and wonder what lie from his childhood he believed that caused him to feel so disgusted by Disney’s work. Or perhaps it was merely two men from two vastly different cultures creating the kind of stories they loved and in different mediums. Their backgrounds served to interest them in different things, and when they began creating, they did so in a way that appealed to them. The works of both men entertained general audiences all over the world, but in different ways. All this to say, here were two creators, writing about similar subject matters in very different ways. Who they were as human beings greatly influenced their work and the lives they led after those works. Tolkien remained wholly devoted to Middle Earth his entire life, which Disney bounced from animation to live action to documentaries to theme parks, to World Fair exhibitor, who died before completing his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which was to be “a living blueprint for the future.”

There are a lot of authors out in the world these days. There are a lot of books. People like to say that everything under the sun has been done already. This is something that discourages a lot of authors. But let me encourage you. There is no one in the world like you. The way you tell a story is unique. And just like Tolkien and Disney, you might tell a story that’s similar to someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean it won’t find its audience. That doesn’t mean you won’t find criticism, either. We have no control over whether or not people like our work. Try to remember, we don’t write to please everyone. That would be impossible. We write for ourselves and our readers. There will always be someone who doesn’t like what we create. That’s okay. It just means that our art was not meant for them.

One thing we can control is how we speak about others. Take caution from the letters of Lewis and Tolkien that were written in private to friends. Even words you think are private might someday be out in the world for all to see. So be kind. Don’t get so caught up in what other people are doing. Unless someone is paying you to do so, don’t be a critic of you peers. Stick to the adage, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

What do you think of this story? Do you have any wisdom or experiences to share that feel similar? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Also! Before I go, I want to share one more thing. Last month, I did a cover reveal for Magic Hunters, the middle grade fairy tale mash-up I co-wrote with my husband. (After this post, I think the story would probably make Disney chuckle and Tolkien roll his eyes…)

I wanted to share the cover with you all. Isn’t it the cutest? The character art was done by Hannah Prewett, and the cover was designed by Emilie Hendryx.

This book releases on June 23. Signed paperback copies can be pre-ordered from my author bookstore. Use promo code: MagicShip to get FREE shipping until June 23.

Have an amazing summer! Read, write, and laugh, my friends.