Dominic Winters Auction

Tolkien (J. R. R.) The Hobbit or There and Back Again, 1st edition, 2nd impression, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937, 4 colour plates by the author, monochrome illustrations, map endpapers, advertisement at rear, light marginal dust-soiling to pp. 14-15, occasional minor spotting, bookseller ticket to front pastedown, original green pictorial cloth, price-clipped dust jacket, tear and loss at foot of front panel, closed tears at head of joints and along rear flap, tears and losses at folds, 8vo


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NOTE:

Hammond A3a. The second impression was printed in the same year as the first, and the first to be illustrated in colour. A total of 2,300 copies were printed but some 400 held at the binder's London warehouse were destroyed during the Blitz in November 1940.

Tolkien (J. R. R.) The Lord of the Rings, 3 volumes, limited edition, 6th printing, London: Folio Society, 2001, illustrations by Ingahild Grathmer after Eric Fraser, map endpapers, top edge gilt, original Wassa goatskin-backed silk boards, contained in original morocco slipcase, 8vo, together with The Hobbit, 7th printing, 2002, and The Silmarillion, 4th printing, 2003, Folio Society, uniformly bound in slipcases


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NOTE:

Limited edition 505/1750.

Tolkien (J. R. R.). The Hobbit, 1st edition, 4th impression, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1946, colour frontispiece, black and white illustrations, pictorial endpapers, a few spots, original pictorial green cloth, some wear to spine, binding slightly cocked, 8vo


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Tolkien (John Ronald Reuel, 1893-1973). English Writer, Poet, Philologist, and Academic. Autograph Letter Signed twice, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien’ and ‘JRRT.’, 76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford, 12 September 1957, to Miss [Joan] Light, in reply to her letter of gratitude to Tolkien and saying how his book [Lord of the Rings] has been such a help to her, in full: ‘Thank you very much in return. Most encouraging. I do get a good many letters, but not many in such terms. And I am tired of being labelled an "escapist". A recent reviewer (not of my books) offered the gratuitous opinion that "Tolkienery” is bad as it “withdraws from life". But it appeared that what he called "life" was limited to observation of the contemporary “orquerie”: to coin a word in rejoinder. It was very kind of you to cheer me up, and on!’, written in dark blue ink in a very neat hand on embossed letterhead stationery and signed ‘J.R.R. Tolkien’ at the foot of the page, with a ‘PTO’ in his holograph to lower right corner, the second page continuing with an even longer note, signed with initials ‘JRRT.’ at foot, ‘There was one other useful feature of Hobbit-life (besides the unchanging calendar): there was, in fact, only one title of courtesy for all grown-ups, male or female. I am afraid in the "modernization" this is misrepresented on p. 38 (Vol I). Actually Master Everard and Miss Melilot would have been more accurately rendered G. Childe Everard etc. If I have chosen the wrong rendering in your case, forgive a poor old Shire-man. You might be amused to learn that there is actually a Sam Gamgee living in London. I had a rather puzzled letter from him. But I think he is happy now. So far no S. Gollum has turned up. That might be more awkward’, some light creasing near upper and lower margins and to left-hand corners, 2 pages, 8vo, with the original postmarked envelope (Oxford, 12 September 1957), addressed in Tolkien’s hand to Miss J. Light in Hampstead, together with:
A draft signed copy of Joan Light’s letter to Professor Tolkien, 8 September 1957, neatly written in pencil, in full: ‘Since the publication of "The Lord of the Rings" I have often wanted very much indeed to write and tell you how much I have enjoyed it, but I have never been able to bring myself to do so because I know how many such letters you must get of this kind, and I did not wish to trouble you. But as time passes I feel I must write to express, however inadequately, my real sense of gratitude to you for a work which has done so much to help me personally by proving in times of fear and great spiritual darkness, an inspiration by its theme of courage and loyalty. I hope you will not mind my writing to you in this way, but your book has been such a help to me that I felt I must say thank you’, 2 pages, 8vo


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NOTE:

An exceptional, previously unpublished, and double-signed letter, full of interest, kindness, warmth and humour.

The direct reference to The Fellowship of the Ring, page 38, is to the names and courtesy titles that appear in line 3: ‘Master Everard Took and Miss Melilot Brandybuck got on a table and with bells in their hands began to dance the Springle-ring: a pretty dance, but rather vigorous.’

The coincidence of the real-life Sam Gamgee and Tolkien’s fear of a real-life S. Gollum is a topic that is recorded in previously known letters. J.R.R. Tolkien had taken the name of the character Gamgee from Gamgee Tissue, a surgical dressing invented by the Birmingham surgeon Joseph Sampson Gamgee (1828-1886).

Tolkien Gateway online:

‘Letter 184 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Following the 1955 radio series of The Lord of the Rings, a Tooting resident named "Sam Gamgee" wrote to Tolkien on 13 March 1956. On 18 March, Tolkien replied. He explained his own origin of the name Gamgee, and mentioned the Gamgee family of Birmingham. In his letter, Gamgee had already shown awareness of his family's name fame in the medical profession. Tolkien then asked for more information about the name, and offered a signed copy of The Lord of the Rings.

In an editorial note, further correspondence is mentioned. Gamgee wrote back with family information, and accepted the gift kindly. In J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, pages 224-225, this episode was also mentioned. It was followed by: "[l]ater he said: 'For some time I lived in fear of receiving a letter signed S. Gollum. That would have been more difficult to deal with.'" It is unclear where this specific passage is from, but a very similar one appears in an unpublished letter to Rayner Unwin from 21 March 1956: "I hope I shan’t now get letters from S. Gollum, or Shagrat."’

Gamgee's first letter from 13 March 1956 is reproduced in Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.’

Tolkien (J. R. R.) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 8th impression, 1959; The Two Towers, 6th impression, 1959; The Return of the King, 5th impression, 1959, folding map at end of each, a little minor spotting (mainly to fore-edges and endpapers), top edge red, original red cloth gilt, dust jackets, spines toned, a few short closed tears, contained in publisher's slipcase (some adhesive tape repairs and wear), 8vo


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