TCG Letter #2267

R.W. Chambers sends Tolkien a book^{The Fame of Blessed Thomas More, 1929[1]} as a New Year gift. Chambers include a handwritten page quoting from Sir Thomas More on gift giving. Also included is a printed card with the authors "best wishes".

The Blackwell's Rare Books description reads

A New Year's gift from R.W. Chambers, who leads this collection of essays, to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, adding beneath the inscription ('J.R.R. Tolkien, from R.W. Chambers, Dec. 31, 1929') a lengthy quotation from More on the giving of gifts at New Year between 'friends [...] as a witness of their love and friendship'. A printed card, conveying the author's 'best wishes' to the same and depicting Holbein's study for his painting of the More Family Group is laid in at the rear. Chambers, a fellow Catholic and 'among the foremost Old English scholars', was, Tom Shippey writes, 'a patron and supporter of Tolkien in his early years'. Their correspondence also records the presentation of Chambers' subsequent biography of More in 1935. An excellent association copy.