Ok, So I am a huge Tolkien fan and at 31 years old I have an impressive collection. I live in the U.K but my Mom's brother lives in California (emigrated in the 80s) he came over for my Nan's funeral and we got Talking, turns out he is a Tolkien fan too and wrote to him in 1973 to which he recieved a reply from Tolkien at the Alan and Unwin offices.
He had asked about more books about hobbits, the reply said there would be no more but a book called the silmarillion was in the works. That is the year tolkien died. I could scan it if any one would like a look. He gave me the letter!