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And I've been directed to a History Professor there and have sent them a message asking about it. Tour, once I find out if they are there I'll try to connect the two of you.
From my Southern Miss friends:
"The lady that runs the de Grummond Collection is more than happy to talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime (LOL) about anything in the collection. I can't recall her name but she spoke last year at the Spring Gala event on the Coast. Until then, I was not aware of the collection and hearing about it was fascinating! Good luck making the connection and finding what interests you that we may have in the collection."
Another:
“We have one letter from Tolkien saying he was going to send us some manuscript material but sadly he never did ”
Another:
"Dr. Orange, an English professor at Southern who rose to become the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences studied at Oxford and was JRR Tolkein's roommate at Oxford while they were undergraduates. The post office at the time (late 60s), was to the left as you enter the Hub and it had a big glass display case by the entrance. There was always something on display there by some group or an organization. A selectioin of Dr. Orange's personal correspondence between him and Tolkein was on display for a month. Tolkein's letters are a work of art. He wrote in a beautiful and very distinctive style, and he would have colored images drawn in the letters he wrote. [Frederic Remington, the famous American writer, painter and sculpture was famous for doing the same thing in his letters.]
As an undergrad, Tolkien was unknown to me until that display. It was captivating to look at his handwritten letters and learn about his books. That is when I started reading the Hobbit and the Ring trilogy. It was my understanding that when Dr. Orange passed away, his treasure trove of letters was given to the USM Library. As an aside, Dr. Orange was someone who lit up a room when he entered and he always had stories, great stories. Every student on campus knew him and he knew most of them. The student body in the mid 60's was in the 5,000 range. From what I remember, Dr. Orange was Tolkien's roommate when he conceived the idea of the Hobbit and the Trilogy. D. Orange had wonderful stories about Tolkien. I wish they had been recorded."
They all thought this was really cool and wished us luck in getting to see the letter(s).
"The lady that runs the de Grummond Collection is more than happy to talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime (LOL) about anything in the collection. I can't recall her name but she spoke last year at the Spring Gala event on the Coast. Until then, I was not aware of the collection and hearing about it was fascinating! Good luck making the connection and finding what interests you that we may have in the collection."
Another:
“We have one letter from Tolkien saying he was going to send us some manuscript material but sadly he never did ”
Another:
"Dr. Orange, an English professor at Southern who rose to become the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences studied at Oxford and was JRR Tolkein's roommate at Oxford while they were undergraduates. The post office at the time (late 60s), was to the left as you enter the Hub and it had a big glass display case by the entrance. There was always something on display there by some group or an organization. A selectioin of Dr. Orange's personal correspondence between him and Tolkein was on display for a month. Tolkein's letters are a work of art. He wrote in a beautiful and very distinctive style, and he would have colored images drawn in the letters he wrote. [Frederic Remington, the famous American writer, painter and sculpture was famous for doing the same thing in his letters.]
As an undergrad, Tolkien was unknown to me until that display. It was captivating to look at his handwritten letters and learn about his books. That is when I started reading the Hobbit and the Ring trilogy. It was my understanding that when Dr. Orange passed away, his treasure trove of letters was given to the USM Library. As an aside, Dr. Orange was someone who lit up a room when he entered and he always had stories, great stories. Every student on campus knew him and he knew most of them. The student body in the mid 60's was in the 5,000 range. From what I remember, Dr. Orange was Tolkien's roommate when he conceived the idea of the Hobbit and the Trilogy. D. Orange had wonderful stories about Tolkien. I wish they had been recorded."
They all thought this was really cool and wished us luck in getting to see the letter(s).
Always fun to hear memories from people. The Dr. Orange letter connection is an interesting one to pursue as well, though I don't think the memories are completely accurate - whose ever are? Dr. Orange was born in 1922, so he was thirty years younger than Tolkien - seems unlikely they would be undergraduates together. We will follow up with the Library to see what they have, definitely. Thanks!
Tuor son of Huor wrote:
...
My search in NYPL also turned up a result for A de Grummond Primer, which is a book about Lena de Grummond. A Google Books search of the contents of this book suggests that two Tolkien letters to de Grummond are discussed (one is possibly depicted in the book?) from August 15, 1966 and October 17, 1966. Neither of these letters appears to be listed in the Guide yet. The link to the Google Books search results is here: https://books.google.com/books?id=d6oh ... nippet&q=tolkien&f=false. The link to the book on the publisher's website is here: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/A/A-de-Grummond-Primer. It appears it is also available in ebook format. Based on the snippets I saw, it is possible the holdings of the Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi may hold these two letters, but further research would be needed to confirm that.
Just to close out this interesting thread - we've worked with the archivist at the University of Southern Mississippi de Grummond collection (and I have acquired a copy of A de Grummond Primer) and both letters are now complete in the Guide. A fun addition, definitely!
Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Lena de Grummond • 15 August 1966 (#1916)
Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Lena de Grummond • 17 October 1966 (#1917)
Urulókë wrote:
Tuor son of Huor wrote:
...
My search in NYPL also turned up a result for A de Grummond Primer, which is a book about Lena de Grummond. A Google Books search of the contents of this book suggests that two Tolkien letters to de Grummond are discussed (one is possibly depicted in the book?) from August 15, 1966 and October 17, 1966. Neither of these letters appears to be listed in the Guide yet. The link to the Google Books search results is here: https://books.google.com/books?id=d6oh ... nippet&q=tolkien&f=false. The link to the book on the publisher's website is here: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/A/A-de-Grummond-Primer. It appears it is also available in ebook format. Based on the snippets I saw, it is possible the holdings of the Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi may hold these two letters, but further research would be needed to confirm that.
Just to close out this interesting thread - we've worked with the archivist at the University of Southern Mississippi de Grummond collection (and I have acquired a copy of A de Grummond Primer) and both letters are now complete in the Guide. A fun addition, definitely!
Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Lena de Grummond • 15 August 1966 (#1916)
Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Lena de Grummond • 17 October 1966 (#1917)
Awesome, great news!
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