original_query: Who were some of the early supporters of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?
query: Who were some of the early supporters of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?
answer: Early supporters of Tolkien's *The Lord of the Rings* included W.H. Auden, Iris Murdoch, C.S. Lewis, Kenneth F. Slater, Michael Straight, Richard Hughes, and Naomi Mitchison.