20th-Century Books and Manuscripts

Notes
This catalogue includes four Tolkien-related lots:

Lot 36 (p.24) - A four page letter to Jennifer Paxman, dated 26 September 1947. The extracts quoted in the lot description include, amongst other things, mentions of dissatisfaction with Allen & Unwin; errors in The Hobbit; languages, alphabets and names in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; and differences between editions of The Hobbit. One page of the letter is reproduced in a photograph.

Lot 37 (p.25) - A two page letter to Jennifer Paxman, dated 28 July 1955. The extracts reproduced here discuss the production of the Appendices and map for The Return of the King and an impending trip to Gondor: Pelargir and Lossarnach - identified as Italy: Venice and Assisi.

Lot 38 (pp.25-6) - A two page letter to Tolkien's aunt Jane Neave, dated 15 November 1961. The lot description includes quotes discussing The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, as well as his former chair at Oxford: "I wasn't a professor of "Literature" - which I still think is not a good basis for academic study". The first page of the letter is reproduced in a photograph.

Lot 39 (p.26) - This lot consists of a typed copy of the poem Princess Mee, together with a two page letter to Jane Neave dated 22 November 1962. The letter is included in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien as Letter No. 234.

With the exception of Lot 39, the letters are not included in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1981).