J.R.R. Tolkien | Typed letter signed to Eileen Elgar referencing Tolkien's ongoing struggle to compose The Silmarillion, [with:] Tree and Leaf, first edition in paperback

J.R.R. Tolkien

Typed letter signed, to Eileen Elgar, mentioning his work on the Silmarillion and discussing his travel plans, 1 page, headed stationery of 76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford, 29 August 1966, previously folded

[loosely inserted into:]

Tree and Leaf. London: Unwin Books, 1964. FIRST EDITION IN PAPERBACK, 8vo, facsimile of Tolkien's signature on title-page, publisher's pictorial wrappers, wrappers slightly toned and delaminating at edges

Tolkien had promised Eileen a copy of Tree and Leaf (see autograph note accompanying lot 83) and he later sent her a copy of the first hardback edition (see previous lot). In the letter accompanying the present volume, the author thanks Eileen for her "long letter of the 20th August" and apologises "for [his] neglect of [her] during the recent months", owing to a busy schedule and "more anxieties than my health and time can cope with". Tolkien looks forward to a "long needed" foreign holiday with his wife on a cruise to Smyrna, and sympathises with Eileen's chronic ear condition (she had been deaf since birth), praising her stoicism.

Also notable is the letter's reference to Tolkien's ongoing struggle to compose the collection of mythopoeic writings that had initially begun working on half a century previously, but which would remain unfinished upon his death in 1973 ("I have got no further with The Silmarillion, but hope to get on with it when I return in the autumn").

PROVENANCE:

Given by the author to Eileen Elgar; by family descent