Dec. 1953 postcard to Rayner Unwin

Thanks for posting, and nice to be able to see this interesting postcard, I am struggling with reading this postcard, hopefully Rayner Unwin could read it.

Good luck for anyone who pays the asking price and hopes to get a profit later on.

"Monday Dec. 28th 1953

Dear R[ayner]"

I hope to reach Museum Street about 10 mins. to 12 noon tomorrow, with proofs of Vol. I and map. I shall hope to carry back those of Vol. III. I have to be at [?Langbourne] Place at 2 pm, but I should be able to get away again about 4 pm if there is more to do.

Yours,

JRRT"

Thanks, I notice that the card is mentioned in the Chronology (page 420 first ed) by Scull & Hammond as being part of Tolkien-George Allen & Unwin archive at HarperCollins. Strange it should be for sale.

The Tolkien-Allen & Unwin archive contains a photocopy of the postcard, and did so when we first looked at it decades ago. (At the time, we didn't know it was a postcard, as only the message side was copied.) How or why, or rather by whom, the original left the Allen & Unwin files is a mystery. The card was offered at least once before, on eBay in 1999, when it was initially priced only in low three figures (we didn't record what it brought in the end).

The address Tolkien was going to was Langham Place, i.e. the BBC.

Wayne & Christina

"Monday Dec. 28th 1953

Dear R[ayner]"

I hope to reach Museum Street about 10 mins. to 12 noon tomorrow, with proofs of Vol. I and map. I shall hope to carry back those of Vol. III. I have to be at Langham Place at 2 pm, but I should be able to get away again about 4 pm if there is more to do.

Yours,

JRRT"

Thanks to Aelfwine and Findegil for the full translation.