Tolkien & White Box

Are They Related?
In The Dragon # 13, vol. 3, number 7, from April 1978, Rob Kuntz writes about the relationship, or lack there-of, between J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and TSR's fantasy adventure game in an article titled Tolkien in Dungeons & Dragons (reprinted in The Best of The Dragon). Mr. Kuntz, there alongside Gary Gygax from the beginning, writes on behalf of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), the publisher of the Original RPG and The Dragon magazine. The short article seems to be written in response to customer feedback regarding the difficulties of making White Box fit as a set of rules for play in Prof. Tolkien's Middle Earth. Mr. Kuntz responds by stating that many fantasy worlds influenced the conception of the game which was ultimately designed to be humanocentric (based around human characters) because that is the focus of most sword & sorcery literature.
Mr. Kuntz specifically states D&D was not written to recreate or in any way simulate Professor Tolkien's world or beings". He goes on to state, " that this system (White Box) works with the worlds of R.E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and L.S. de Camp and Fletcher Pratt much better than that of Tolkien". In support of this statement, Mr. Kuntz notes that despite the inclusion of elves and orcs many of the character classes and spells in the game do not function well in a Middle Earth setting. He concludes his argument by observing that the professor's tale (as told in the Lord of the Rings) was told to conclusion and that there remains nothing further for new characters to do.
There remains little doubt that Mr. Gygax was thinking about Middle Earth when he authored the  Chainmail Fantasy Supplement.  Elves, hobbits, Balrogs, Nazgul and Ents all make an appearance in the Fantasy Supplement and it seems obvious that the rules are written so as to allow for tabletop battles using Middle Earth creature miniatures as well as other fantasy sources. The original LBBs draw from this Fantasy Supplement and reference it on a number of occasions. The first five printings of White Box include references to hobbits, Balrogs and Ents, which were removed for the 6th printing, probably at the request of the Tolkien estate.
It seems obvious to us today that White Box is not a game written to specifically play in Tolkien's world of Middle Earth. This was not so clear 45 years ago. I can recall many attempts over the decades to retro-fit White Box and the implied milieu into something compatible with Prof. Tolkien's Middle Earth which was never an easy task. Getting the Tolkien feel requires so much alteration of the rules as written that the resulting home-brew is barely recognizable as White Box. I suppose this is Mr. Kuntz's point. Still, the hobby being what it is, this hasn't kept people from trying.