Vera Chapman

From Tolkien Gateway
Vera Chapman.jpg
Vera Chapman
Biographical information
Born8 May, 1898
Died14 May, 1996
OccupationAuthor
LocationUnited Kingdom
Websitehttp://www.tolkiensociety.org

Vera Ivy May Chapman (née Fogerty) (8 May, 1898 - 14 May, 1996, aged 98) was the founder of the Tolkien Society, known by her pseudonym "Belladonna Took". She was also the author of several Arthurian, pseudo-historical and fantasy books.

Vera was born in Bournemouth and lived in South Africa, until she went to Oxford. She studied at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford and was a student of Pr. Joseph Wright. In 1969, she founded The Tolkien Society of which she was Secretary from 1969 to 1976, and persuaded J.R.R. Tolkien to become the Society's Honorary President on June 27th, 1972.

Vera wrote throughout her life, attempting to get published without success for many years, but this did not discourage her. Although she liked to say that she "had collected enough rejection slips to paper a whole room!" before she got her first book published, she never gave up. Her first novel, "The Green Knight", an Arthurian tale, was published in 1975, and she continued writing until her death in 1996. Many of her stories remain unpublished, including a monumental "Fate of Jerusalem", a fantasy set during the time of the Crusades. Her best known character is the Abbess of Shaston, heroine of her published collection "The Notorious Abbess", who also appears in The Fate of Jerusalem.

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

Articles[edit | edit source]

Tolkien-related fiction[edit | edit source]

Kay Woollard's illustration for Belladonna's story

Non-Tolkien-related fiction[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

Vera Chapman
None
Position created
Acting Chairman of the Tolkien Society
29 January 1970 - 20 November 1970
Followed by:
Keith Bridges


The Tolkien Society
President: J.R.R. Tolkien · Vice-president: Priscilla Tolkien · Chair: Shaun Gunner
Topics History (Letter to Vera Chapman and the Tolkien Society) · Archives · Awards · Enyalië · Smials · Tolkien to the World · Tolkien fandom
Chairs Vera Chapman (1970) · Keith Bridges (1970-1973) · Hartley Patterson (1973-1974) · Jonathan Simons (1974-1984) · Brin Dunsire (1984-1988) · Alex Lewis (1988-1992) · Amanda Fingleson (1992-1996) · Chris Crawshaw (1996-2008) · Matthew Vernon (2008-2009) · Sally Kennett (2009-2013) · Shaun Gunner (2013-present)
Annual Events Birthday Toast (3 January) · Tolkien Reading Day (25 March) · AGM and Springmoot (April) · Seminar (July) · Oxonmoot (September)
Conferences Oxonmoot (annual, 1974-present) · J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1992) · Tolkien 2005: The Ring Goes Ever On (2005) · The Return of the Ring (2012) · Tolkien 2019 (2019)
Publications Journals Belladonna's Broadsheet (1969-1970) · Mallorn (1970-present) · The Tolkien Society Bulletin (1970-1971) · Andúril (1972) · Amon Hen (1972-present) · Quettar (1980-1995)
Books An Extrapolation on The Silmarillion (1975) · The Trees, the Jewels and the Rings (1977) · Tolkien in Oxford: The Tolkien Society Guide (1978) · The Tolkien Society Songbook (1985) · Tolkien and Romanticism (1988) · Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Centenary Conference (1995) · The Oxonmoot Songbook (1997) · The Filking Songbook (2001) · The Tolkien Society Guide to Oxford (2005) · Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference (2008) · Tolkien 2005 Souvenir Book (2009) · Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Conference 2012 (2016)
Peter Roe Books 1. Some Light on Middle-earth (1985) · 2. Leaves from the Tree (1991) · 3. The First and Second Ages (1992) · 4. Travel and Communication in Tolkien's Worlds (1996) · 5. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 1 (1997) · 6. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 2 (1998) · 7. Tolkien, the Sea and Scandinavia (1999) · 8. The Ways of Creative Mythologies (2000) · 9. Tolkien: A Mythology for England? (2000) · 10. The Best of Amon Hen, vol. 1 (2000) · 11. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees, vol. 3 (2001) · 12. Sindarin Lexicon (2001) · 13. The Best of Amon Hen, vol. 2 (2002) · 14. Tolkien: Influenced and Influencing (2005)· 15. Freedom, Fate and Choice in Middle-earth (2012) · 16. Journeys & Destinations (2015) · 17. Death and Immortality in Middle-earth (2017) · 18. Poetry and Song in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2018) · 19. Tolkien the Pagan? (2019) · 20. Adapting Tolkien (2021) · 21. Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien (2022) · 22. Tolkien and Diversity (2023)