BIB_ID
193980
Accession number
MA 4373
Creator
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973.
Display Date
1937 Dec. 14.
Credit line
Purchased as the gift of Julia P. Wightman; 1985.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 17.6 cm
Notes
Geoffrey E. Selby was evidently part of the English faculty at Oxford in the late 1930's and early 1940s.
Provenance
Sale (London, Sotheby's, 28-29 July 1977, lot 537); Glenn Horowitz Catalogue 4: Modern First Editions (New York, 1981, lot 588); purchased as the gift of Julia P. Wightman, 1985.
Summary
Concerning The Hobbit, noting "I don't much approve of The Hobbit myself, prefering my own mythology (which is just touched on) with its consistent nomenclature ... and organized history, to this rabble of Eddaic-named dwarves out of Voluspa, newfangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle hour) and Anglo-Saxon runes." Remarking that he never offered it for sale, and relating the discovery of the manuscript "in a nunnery" by his publishers G. A. and Unwin. Mentioning the critical reception of the work and proper pronunciation of the names therein, and disparaging his drawings. With two postscripts responding to some corrections.
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