Discuss Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to J.G. Riewald on 20 August 1948

Interesting thanks Urulókë. I don't believe this is recorded anywhere else. I wonder of the library has any other interesting letters we could ask about?

The first page of the letter can be viewed here: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibition ... es-items-69-73/item/15212

Tuor son of Huor wrote:

The first page of the letter can be viewed here: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibition ... es-items-69-73/item/15212

Thank you tuor, that is great.

onthetrail wrote:

Interesting thanks Urulókë. I don't believe this is recorded anywhere else. I wonder of the library has any other interesting letters we could ask about?

A brief search turns up a few interesting things.

Apparently the NYPL has a collection of drawings and various papers once belonging to Elizabeth Morgan, the grandmother of Tolkien's guardian, Fr. Francis Morgan. I doubt that would have anything related to Tolkien given she died when Fr. Morgan was only 9 years old. The link to that collection information is here: https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b21641705.

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.

Thanks Tuor son of Huor, that de Grummond Primer is an excellent find - clearly they have two letters from Tolkien in their collection. Both are mentioned in H&S Chronology (we haven't entered the 1960s in the Guide yet!) but knowing where they are held gives us an excellent thread to investigate for further details.

Urulókë wrote:

Thanks Tuor son of Huor, that de Grummond Primer is an excellent find - clearly they have two letters from Tolkien in their collection. Both are mentioned in H&S Chronology (we haven't entered the 1960s in the Guide yet!) but knowing where they are held gives us an excellent thread to investigate for further details.

I was very happy to find it! Keep up the great work on H&S, I know there is so much to be entered from them. The University of Southern Mississippi is less than two hours from where I live, might be my best chance to ever hold a real Tolkien letter in my hands if I can make it over there at some point.

On the subject of Tolkien's letter about finding Beerbohm's cartoons amusing, I note that John Holmes wrote about Tolkien's reference to a Beerbohm cartoon in his 2021 Mythlore Article: How Tolkien Saved His Neck about the unpublished lecture, "Neck Verse," given to the Oxford Dante Society: https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.c ... cle=3074&context=mythlore

Tuor son of Huor wrote:

On the subject of Tolkien's letter about finding Beerbohm's cartoons amusing, I note that John Holmes wrote about Tolkien's reference to a Beerbohm cartoon in his 2021 Mythlore Article: How Tolkien Saved His Neck about the unpublished lecture, "Neck Verse," given to the Oxford Dante Society: https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.c ... cle=3074&context=mythlore

Nice! I sent that article on to Doug in case he was unaware of the link.

Tuor son of Huor wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

Interesting thanks Urulókë. I don't believe this is recorded anywhere else. I wonder of the library has any other interesting letters we could ask about?

A brief search turns up a few interesting things.

Apparently the NYPL has a collection of drawings and various papers once belonging to Elizabeth Morgan, the grandmother of Tolkien's guardian, Fr. Francis Morgan. I doubt that would have anything related to Tolkien given she died when Fr. Morgan was only 9 years old. The link to that collection information is here: https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b21641705.

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.

Southern Miss is my school! I head back there for football and baseball games a few times a year. I'll have to look into that next time I'm there. Might also check with some other Alumni I know to see if any of them have contacts at the library.