Hi Sara. Many thanks for your post and for your clarifications. I'm happy to learn that my suggestion about the newspaper article being a "construction" (based on the journalist's own fantasies) was correct.

Perhaps I should spare you some of the rash comments that people have posted, but the posts below were published in "open" forum. I urged people not to jump to any conclusions, but maybe you also want to offer a clarification yourself (otherwise I can post a link to your message at this website):

http://newboards.theonering.net/forum ... _collapsed;guest=85275505

One of the reason why I've asked critical posters not to base their opinion of your work on the newspaper article, is that I myself experienced something similar about twenty years ago. A couple of close friends in my hometown suddenly become national news in Sweden and were harassed by tabloid newspaper journalists. When I read some of the articles, it was obvious to an "insider" like me that the texts consisted of 5% fact and 95% pure speculation.

Feel free to contact me at morgan[at]tolkienindex[dot]net.

/Morgan Thomsen

Count me in as a [1].

Concerning the framed letter: I was quickly glancing at newly listed Tolkien items at eBay and saw this sale. After just reading the title, checking the seller's feedback and quickly looking at the photos, I instantly proceeded to make a purchase, suspecting everybody here would soon be trying to get their hands on a rare gem (and that each second therefore was of vital importance). My heart was beating fast (hoping for a lucky find), while something in the back of my head was poking "go back and carefully read the auction details", which to my later great horror said "note: this is a reprint" and that 4 copies were available. Luckily (and kindly) the seller just now refunded my money -- although I would in any case have sent the item back.

And yes, Trotter, this is certainly a case of trying to make money out of Tolkien which would require the Estate's permission (and I doubt they would give permission for something like this).

Khamûl: Based on how the text reads in the newspaper article (my first link), people have been accusing Sara Brown of referring to a quote falsely attributed to Tolkien ("a single dream is more powerful than a thousand realitites"), making the conclusion that she must be a bad scholar. However, I did a bit of research and it appears like the author of the article has just re-arranged an earlier article (my second link), making it sound like Dr Brown is providing the quote (which she isn't in the original article).

Josh: No, I believe the Mythgard webpage is outdated. See her LinkedIn profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/dr-sara-brown/12/220/b61

You'll all have heard about this by now, but unfortunately the news spread in the Tolkien circles based on a link to a dubious newspaper article. This is the link to the original source (and I feel sorry for Dr Brown who got so much bad publicity for what appears to be mere invention by the author of the newspaper article):

http://rydalpenrhos.com/news/13/04/lifelong_passion_for_tolkien

My question:

As I have never attempted to do the following -- is it possible to purchase a copy of a PhD thesis (i.e., Sara Brown's thesis)? A thesis is a public document, right? How would I proceed?