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Re: Sotheby's catalogue 1991 with Tolkien letter

Subject: Re: Sotheby's catalogue 1991 with Tolkien letter
by Findegil on 2010/6/27 17:34:39

The Sotheby's catalogue was for their sale of English Literature and History in London on 18 July 1991. It reproduced one page from Tolkien's letter of 11 March 1949, and quoted from other Tolkien letters, including two more to Miss Turnbull (2 and 19 May 1955). Brief excerpts from two of the letters, including that for 1949, were published the following year in Catalogue 16 of R.A. Gekoski, London. Two and a half of the 3-1/2 pages of the 1949 letter, and longer excerpts, were published in 1995 in Catalogue Three of Gerard A.J. Stodolski, Manchester, New Hampshire.

To the best of my knowledge, the 1991 Sotheby's catalogue (Hammond bibliography Dii81) is the earliest offer of the 11 March 1949 letter for sale. I don't know if it was offered in any printed catalogue later than Stodolski's in 1995. I believe that the letter is currently in private hands (alas, not mine).

Wayne