Thanks Deagol for this response! Really appreciate telling us some more...

It is difficult to judge the situation when you are not involved and don't know the complete content of the book and what is actually going on with the Estate. Without going to much into detail you have answered a lot of questions.

I'm happy to read that the project gave you good pleasure, still I believe it would have been much nicer for you to have the book published. Somehow I hope something miraculous will happen and somehow it will get the green light. There are, or so I believe, many people who would love to read the book. To learn Tolkien through the eyes of someone he was so close with is surely much more interesting then getting to learn him by reading letters in auction catalogues! Still that is probably the problem, or do I misunderstand?

I'm not completely understanding how publishing letters will reduce their value, since published letters tend to be much more valuable than unpublished letters... letters that can be linked to published letters are more valuable than unpublished letters. Actually there are many factors why one letter can be more valuable then another, I'm just thinking about famous people, content, length, serious opinions on topics, mention of any of his works,... the list goes on. Anyways, it is an explanation I don't follow too much... but might be my own thing.

Anyways, I believe you sound very positive still, even while you say you don't know what the future will bring,... I believe only by approaching it in a positive manner there will be found a way forward!

I just PM'd the following to someone, but it pretty much sums up how I feel about it all:

It is a real shame, mostly I think for those that won't get to read the book, as I have had the privilege of reading the letters and spending hours pouring over all the papers.

Strangely I am not angry or outraged, as some seem to be judging by the response elsewhere, just disappointed that I don't get to share all the wonderful things with everybody.

Thank you from me as well for posting more background and how you are feeling, Deagol. I really appreciate all the time and effort you have put into this book, and do still hold out hope that it will see the light of day at some point.

As authors who have worked with the Tolkien Estate in producing books containing copyrighted material, and are known to contribute to Tolkien fan forums, we have been asked to forward the following official statement:

Statement of the Tolkien Estate - Wheelbarrows at Dawn

The J R R Tolkien Estate has been made aware of a statement by ADC Publications concerning its cancellation of its proposed publication Wheelbarrows at Dawn by Angela Gardner and Neil Holford.

ADC's statement suggests that the publication has been cancelled as a result of the Tolkien Estate's threats to take court action preventing the release of the book.

As this statement is highly misleading, the Tolkien Estate considers it important that the true facts be clarified for those concerned.

The book in question was presented by ADC as a biography of J R R Tolkien's brother Hilary. However, the publication included numerous personal letters from J R R Tolkien to his brother and from other family members that were reproduced virtually verbatim.

The copyright in these private, unpublished letters belongs to the Tolkien Estate. As the guardian of these rights and of the privacy of the Tolkien family, both of which it takes great care to protect, the Estate quite properly declined permission for the letters to be reproduced in this way.

However, the Estate made clear to ADC that it had no issue with the publication of the book providing the material in question - affecting only 20 pages out of a total of some 300 - was removed.

Although ADC's response was to agree to this, what it then did in practice was to paraphrase the letters, something that had been made clear from the outset would not resolve the issue.

Despite the Estate's devoting considerable resource to helping ADC, not least by suggesting specific editorial changes which would meet its concerns, ADC then announced the cancellation of the book.

===

Wayne & Christina

I guess the rule of thumb is don't write a book with previously unpublished material until you have secured permission to use the material.

Thanks Wayne and Christina for the post. I is interesting to hear both sides of the story. It is disappointing that the book remains unpublished as the subject itself provides another piece to the whole picture of Tolkien's life.

Hope that there can be a resolution in the future, it is a shame for so much hard work not to come to fruition.

Dior