Darren Sutherland
Specialist
Literature
Lot 155
TOLKIEN, J.R.R. 1892-1973. 2 Autograph Letters Signed ("J.R.R. Tolkien"), both to a Miss Flint:
22 June 2023, 12:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$11,520 inc. premium
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TOLKIEN, J.R.R. 1892-1973.
TOLKIEN, J.R.R. 1892-1973. 2 Autograph Letters Signed ("J.R.R. Tolkien"), both to a Miss Flint:
1. 2 pp, recto and verso, 8vo, on pale blue paper with embossed letterhead of 3 Manor Road, Holywell, Oxford, July 15, 1949. Tolkien writes: "I regret that I was away when you wrote and telephoned ... if you are still in Oxford, or likely to be back before, say, the middle of August I could see you. I should be interested to do so, though my connexion with your project is limited to a general approval of the kind of topic or probably a useful and welcome departure from the more common sort of B. Litt titles...."
2. 1 p, 8vo, on letterhead of Merton College, Oxford, August 19, 1949. "It seems to me that the more limited title that you now suggest, though probably difficult and rarified enough, ought to pass the Board ... Personally, I am only anxious that you should be able to "research" in the direction that you desire; as long as you are not landed in a task too complex for the purpose."
Tolkien lends his help and expertise to a fellow scholar rather than as a fiction writer. These letters emphasize that the author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was first and foremost an intellectual — Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College at the time these letters were written, and previous to that Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College at Oxford.
1. 2 pp, recto and verso, 8vo, on pale blue paper with embossed letterhead of 3 Manor Road, Holywell, Oxford, July 15, 1949. Tolkien writes: "I regret that I was away when you wrote and telephoned ... if you are still in Oxford, or likely to be back before, say, the middle of August I could see you. I should be interested to do so, though my connexion with your project is limited to a general approval of the kind of topic or probably a useful and welcome departure from the more common sort of B. Litt titles...."
2. 1 p, 8vo, on letterhead of Merton College, Oxford, August 19, 1949. "It seems to me that the more limited title that you now suggest, though probably difficult and rarified enough, ought to pass the Board ... Personally, I am only anxious that you should be able to "research" in the direction that you desire; as long as you are not landed in a task too complex for the purpose."
Tolkien lends his help and expertise to a fellow scholar rather than as a fiction writer. These letters emphasize that the author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was first and foremost an intellectual — Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College at the time these letters were written, and previous to that Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College at Oxford.
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