Literature, History and Children’s Books

Notes
This catalogue includes several Tolkien-related lots, the most notable being:

527 (p.236) - This lot consists of a First Edition set of The Lord of the Rings together with a letter to Roger Shaw, dated 7 January 1966. The lot description includes extracts from the letter, discussing Iceland, The Lord of the Rings and Midgwater Marshes. (Reprinted in Michael Silverman Catague 21, see Lot 207)

528 (p.236-7) - A six page letter to Mrs. Mumby, dated 21 October 1963. The extracts reproduced here discuss The Lord of the Rings as an imaginary world and the references to an earlier history, as well as giving answers to questions posed by Mrs. Mumby's son Stephen. The first page of the letter is reproduced in a photograph. (Previously published in an earlier Sotheby's catalogue, see Lot 786)

530 (p.239) - This lot consists of a signed copy the First American Edition of Smith of Wootton Major, together with a two page letter to Rosfrith Murray, dated 14 December 1967. The lot description includes two short extracts from the letter, one of them being: "This is the American edition (Better than ours, though I do not think much of the photograph)".

531 (p.239) - A letter to James A.H. Murray, dated 5 June 1973. The extracts quoted in the lot description reveal that Tolkien's rooms on Merton Street were 'guarded' because he had "been assailed by hosts of people, and... invaded by criminals". A postscript to the letter is reproduced in a photograph.

The letters are not included in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1981).