Shippey also refers to the letter by date in 'Long Evolution: The History of Middle-earth and Its Merits', published in Arda, vol. 7 (1992 for 1987), p. 29. There he says: 'On April 13th 1970 I got a letter from Professor Tolkien.' This suggests that 13 April was the date of receipt, in contrast to 'the letter Professor Tolkien wrote to me on 13 April 1970' which implies a date of writing. Although it's possible that Tolkien wrote and posted the letter, and Tom received it, that same day, it's our sense that Royal Mail in 1970 probably would have taken more than a day to transport a letter from Poole to Birmingham. Hence, from all of this, our queried date ?12 April in Chronology.

Wayne & Christina

While following a wholly unrelated line of search to etsy.com, I came across what seemed at first glance to be a gift for the Tolkien collector who has everything: a wall clock made from one of the vinyl soundtrack discs from the Bakshi Lord of the Rings. Though, on second thought, it gives me pause that someone has "recycled" what appears to be a perfectly good LP (there are many such clocks to be had on Etsy).

But wait! What about this miniature doll made in Tolkien's image?

Or a snazzy Legolas hoodie?

Or a T-shirt with the warning: Don't Piss Off the Ents?

One could do without the many bits and pieces with the legend "Not All Who Wander Are Lost". And there are enough items adapting trademarked or copyrighted sources to keep lawyers busy into the new year.

Now, if I were a kid again, I would definitely want one of the Tolkien-inspired cloaks, like this one, or a seriously cool set of strap-on dragon wings.

Happy holidays from Christina and me!

Wayne

As a matter of interest has anyone got a copy of this book with the dust jacket?

Christina and I have a copy of the book, but without the dust-jacket - this is one of our elusive wants too. It was definitely issued in a jacket, though. I saw one - just one - when writing the Descriptive Bibliography. It's a typical Oxford University Press type of jacket, dark blue type on grey paper, with OUP advertisements (dated January 1928) on the lower panel.

Wayne

We've heard somewhere that when Houghton Mifflin granted Contemporary Books permission to reprint "Oliphaunt" they thought that it was going to be just one poem in an anthology, not a separate publication.

Wayne & Christina

Since the only copyright notice in the book is to the Peterson Publishing Company, there's no acknowledgment of Tolkien's copyright, there's no mention of permission to reprint his poem, and Childs World at one time had the whole of the book online at Scribd, it's no wonder that the Tolkien Estate might object. We do wonder if the publisher knew that "Oliphaunt" is protected intellectual property, or believed that The Lord of the Rings had lost its American copyright, which it never did. Childs World issued Oliphaunt as one of a series of single poems for children, and all of the others, by either Robert Louis Stevenson or Edward Lear, are old enough to be in the public domain.

Wayne & Christina