David Day (Canadian writer)

David Day (born 14 October 1947 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a Canadian author and poet best known for his literary criticism on J. R. R. Tolkien and his works.

Biography
After finishing high school in Victoria, British Columbia, Day worked as a logger for five years on Vancouver Island before graduating in 1976 from the University of Victoria. He has published over 40 books of poetry, natural history, ecology, mythology, fantasy and children's literature. He is best known for his books on the life and works of J. R. R. Tolkien.

In 2015, Day was awarded a 'Distinguished Alumni Award' by the University of Victoria.

He currently lives in Toronto.

Works
Day has published six books of poems for adults and ten illustrated children's books of fiction and poetry. His eight non-fiction books on natural history and environmental activism include The Doomsday Book of Animals, which became the basis for the 1990s Discovery Channel series Lost Animals of the 20th Century.

In 2019, Day published The Illustrated World of Tolkien and the leather-bound An Encyclopedia of Tolkien. In 2020, Thunder Bay Press issued a boxed-set of six of Day's Tolkien Illustrated Guides in its Word Cloud Classics series.

Poetry

 * The Cowichan (1975)
 * Many Voices: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Indian Poetry (co-editor) (1977) ISBN 0-88894-134-X
 * The Scarlet Coat Serial (1981) ISBN 0-88878-135-0
 * The Animals Within (1984) ISBN 0-88878-135-0
 * Gothic(1986) ISBN 978-0-920428-05-4
 * The Visions and Revelations of St. Louis the Metis (1997) ISBN 1-895449-64-2
 * Just Say 'No' to Family Values (1997) ISBN 1-55096-162-4

Natural history and ecology

 * The Doomsday Book of Animals (1981) ISBN 0-670-27987-0
 * The Whale War (1987) ISBN 0-87156-775-X
 * The Eco Wars: A Layman's Guide to the Environmental Movement (1989) ISBN 0-245-54723-1
 * The Encyclopedia of Vanished Species (1989) ISBN 0-947889-30-2
 * Noah's Choice (1990)ISBN 0-670-80669-2
 * True Tales of Environmental Madness (1990) ISBN 0-7207-1974-7
 * The Complete Rhinoceros (1994) ISBN 0-9516342-6-7
 * Nevermore: A Book of Hours – Meditations on Extinction (2012) ISBN 978-1-926802-68-8

Fantasy and mythology

 * The Burroughs Bestiary (1978) ISBN 0-450-03442-9
 * A Tolkien Bestiary (1979, ISBN 0-345-28283-3); reprinted as Characters From Tolkien (2001) ISBN 07537-0561-3, reprinted as Guide to Tolkien's World (2002) ISBN 1571458786 and reprinted as Guide to Tolkien's World: A Bestiary (2010) ISBN 978-0753720806
 * Castles, illustrated by Alan Lee (1984) ISBN 0-553-05066-4
 * Tolkien: The Illustrated Encyclopedia (1991) ISBN 978-0025334311
 * The Tolkien Companion (1993, ISBN 0749315946); reprinted as A to Z of Tolkien (1996, 1851529217) and A Guide to Tolkien (2001, 0753705621)
 * Tolkien's Ring Alan Lee (1994) ISBN 0-261-10298-2
 * The Quest for King Arthur (1996) ISBN 1-899883-02-9; published in US as The Search For King Arthur (1996) ISBN 0-8160-3370-6
 * The Hobbit Companion (1997) ISBN 1-57036-391-9
 * ''Tolkien’s World: Mythological Sources of Lord of the Rings (2003) ISBN 1-84000-689-7
 * ''Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded (2015) ISBN 978-0-38568-226-8
 * A Dictionary of Tolkien (2014) ISBN 978-0-75372-796-6
 * An Atlas of Tolkien (2015) ISBN 978-0-75372-937-3
 * The Battles of Tolkien (2016) ISBN 978-0-7537-3109-3
 * The Heroes of Tolkien (2017) ISBN 978-0-7537-3247-2
 * The Dark Powers of Tolkien (2018) ISBN 978-0-7537-3307-3
 * The Hobbits of Tolkien (2019) ISBN 978-0-385-68226-8
 * The Illustrated World of Tolkien (2019) 978-1-64517-131-7
 * An Encyclopedia of Tolkien: The History and Mythology That Inspired Tolkien’s World (2019) ISBN 978-1-64517-009-9; UK edition: A Dictionary of Sources of Tolkien (2019) ISBN 978-0-7537-3393-6
 * The Ring Legends of Tolkien (2020) ISBN 978-1645174417
 * Tolkien Illustrated Guides Boxed Set (of 6) - Word Cloud Classics (2020) ISBN 978-1-68412-999-7

Children's fiction and poetry

 * The Emperor's Panda (1986) ISBN 0-396-09036-2
 * The Swan Children (1989) ISBN 0-8249-8461-7
 * The Sleeper (1990) ISBN 0-8249-8456-0
 * Aska's Animals (1991) ISBN 0-385-25315-X
 * The Big Lie (1991) aka The Walking Catfish ISBN 0-02-726360-6
 * Aska's Birds (1992) ISBN 0-385-25388-5
 * The King of the Woods (1993) ISBN 0-02-726361-4
 * Tippu (1993) ISBN 0-8120-6498-4
 * Aska's Sea Creatures (1994) ISBN 0-385-32107-4

Television, radio, film, and theatre

 * The Emperor’s Panda – Young People’s Theatre of Toronto (1988)
 * Lost Animals of the 20th Century – Channel 4 and NHK Japan TV series (1995/1996)
 * Arthur I| & Arthur II – Royal Birmingham Ballet – Covent Garden, London (2000)
 * Looking for the Hobbit with John Howe – Episode 4: Lost Gold of the Rhine - Cerigo Films (2014); in France: A La Recherche du Hobbit avec John Howe.