A New Letter

[Eledhwen]

This (http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/eveningchronicle/page.cfm?objectid=14601499&method=full&siteid=50081) is a link to an article about a newly discovered letter from JRR Tolkien to a fan, dated 1956. Unfortunately, the contents are only referred to.

[Maggot]

Bummer!! What a shame she didn't let the website see what was in the letter mind you can't blame her she's going to make a mint no collector would want it if they could read it at leisure. Very exciting though eh.

[Eledhwen]

It's a good job the original 'letters' book was published in 1981. C.Tolkien would have had a job getting the letters out of the clutches of their owners' decendents at today's prices!

[Alcuin]

I wonder if they would be willing to allow the Tolkien Estate and scholars to examine the letter and make a copy of the text? That's all we need.

[Barliman Butterbur]

This (http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/eveningchronicle/page.cfm?objectid=14601499&method=full&siteid=50081) is a link to an article about a newly discovered letter from JRR Tolkien to a fan, dated 1956. Unfortunately, the contents are only referred to.

The article appeared in September 2004. One wonders what has transpired since...

Barley

[Eledhwen]

I expect it's available - at a price! Ms Merryis said: "We have a magical letter about Tolkien's feelings on the plot, that a collector would die for. We're talking at least £1,000 possibly £2,000."

This is an article from the Marquette website, giving an insight into how much is less than easily available.....

An unpublished letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien to Nancy Smith, indexer of The Lord of the Rings, offers revealing insights about the Oxford professor’s fantasy fiction. In 1963, several years after preparing the index to The Lord of the Rings, Nancy Smith received an invitation to deliver a lecture about the book to a Tolkien society in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She wrote to Tolkien asking for a greeting that she might read to the group. J.R.R. Tolkien responded with a 1,300 word, handwritten letter, composed over several days surrounding Christmas, 1963. The retired professor described his inspiration for Hobbiton, and the "slow degrees" by which he composed The Lord of the Rings. In addition, Tolkien revealed childhood memories of writing verse about a great green dragon. He outlined how his great mythology began to take shape during 1914-1918, in part while recuperating after the Battle of the Somme. Finally, Tolkien described the parts of The Lord of the Rings that most moved him, nearly a decade after the book’s release: the description of Cerin Amroth, the sound of horns of the Rohirrim, and Gollum’s failure to repent.

Marquette University Libraries’ purchase of the letter at auction was made possible by the Tolkien Archives Fund, established by the late Richard E. Blackwelder (1909-2001). Dr. Blackwelder created the endowment to acquire and preserve Tolkien research material, sponsor public programming, and prepare catalogs about Marquette’s world-renowned manuscript collection.

Also now available within the Tolkien Collection is the original screen treatment for a never-produced film version of The Lord of the Rings, written by Morton Grady Zimmerman and annotated by J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1957 Tolkien had agreed to review a film story line, but judged the project unsound and pulled back from further negotiation. The Zimmerman materials also include the screenwriter’s production notes, along with correspondence between Tolkien’s publisher, Rayner Unwin, and Hollywood agent Forrest J. Ackerman, and one letter by J.R.R. Tolkien to "Mr. Ackerman and Others." Morton Grady Zimmerman (1937-2000) donated the materials to Marquette.

Descriptive inventories for the J.R.R. Tolkien Collection are available online at: http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/tolkien.html

For more information please contact Matt Blessing, Department of Special Collections and Archives, at (414) 288-5901 or Matt.Blessing@marquette.edu

[Maggot]

Pity I haven't got that money humph :(. I wonder what Tolkien wrote in the letter about the plot... It's a shame we can only wonder.