Letter to G.E. Selby (14 December 1937): Difference between revisions
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Dear Selby, | Dear Selby, | ||
It was very nice of you to write to me;and although this was some time ago, I hope you will forgive the delay. I | It was very nice of you to write to me;and although this was some time ago, I hope you will forgive the delay. I have been ill of late. | ||
I don’t much approve of the Hobbit myself, preferring my own mythology (which is just touched on) with itsconsistent nomenclature - Elrond, Gondolin and Esgarorth (??) escaped out of it- and organized history, to this rabble of Eddaic named dwarves out of thisVöluspá newfangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle house) and AngloSaxon (…). Any elves have a more gracious and cunning alphabet. Which appearson the pot of gold in one of the coloured illustrations of the American edition- they have chosen that one. | I don’t much approve of the Hobbit myself, preferring my own mythology (which is just touched on) with itsconsistent nomenclature - Elrond, Gondolin and Esgarorth (??) escaped out of it- and organized history, to this rabble of Eddaic named dwarves out of thisVöluspá newfangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle house) and AngloSaxon (…). Any elves have a more gracious and cunning alphabet. Which appearson the pot of gold in one of the coloured illustrations of the American edition- they have chosen that one. | ||
However there it is: I did not offer | However there it is: I did not offer it for sale. But as the MS. was discovered (in a nunnery) by one of G. A and Unwin’s people and an offer made for it, I let it go. I knew I was in fortrouble. My children, for one thing, do not wholly approve of their privateamusements being turned to cash, even to pat for the excessive costs of theireducation. [That was the hope. Actually I have ear[n]ed £25 so far - butthe publishers write today and say “the first edn. has gone off, and yourfriends wanting first editions must hurry round to the booksellers”]. | ||
Also Oxford was mildly pained: my own college was frankly hurt, until both the Timesand the T.L.S took notice. I am now forgiven, but the matter is not mentioned.We are not in Pembroke expected to descend to the level of a J.B.S Haldane. Notthat I think that I have - except in the matter of illustrations. They are myown, I fear, and with the possible exception of the jacket, bad. As the mostintelligent reviewer (Richard Hughes in The New Statesman Dec. 4) frankly says.All the names are supposed to be pronounced as foreign names (more Latino)except those of Hobbits.* [* And Smaug is of course connected with smjuga sinceIcelandic was in a foolish moment substituted for the proper language of mytales.] | |||
I cannot say how nice of you it was to write. It ?cheered me a good deal. I shall now, they say, have to do more. I offered my publishers something grand, a complete and heroic history of the Elves - and they clamour for more Hobbits. Mr Baggins had some [time? fame?] and properly went into retirement. | I cannot say how nice of you it was to write. It ?cheered me a good deal. I shall now, they say, have to do more. I offered my publishers something grand, a complete and heroic history of the Elves - and they clamour for more Hobbits. Mr Baggins had some [time? fame?] and properly went into retirement. | ||
Revision as of 00:58, 3 March 2014
G.E. Selby 14-15 December 1937 is a letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to G.E. Selby, composed through 14-15 December, 1937.[1]
- Subject: Replying to a letter from Selby dated 28 November, Tolkien discusses various aspects of The Hobbit, especially in relation to The Silmarillion.
- Publication: Extracts from the letter appeared in Sotheby's Nineteenth Century and Modern First Editions, Presentation Copies, Autograph Letters and Literary Manuscripts 28-29 July 1977, and was fully reproduced and transcribed[note 1] in 1987 in J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit: The Hobbit Drawings, Watercolors and Manuscripts.[2] In 1988, Christopher Tolkien quoted from the letter in his Foreword to The Return of the Shadow.[3] A summary of the letter was provided by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond in The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology.[1]
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Transcription
Dear Selby,
It was very nice of you to write to me;and although this was some time ago, I hope you will forgive the delay. I have been ill of late.
I don’t much approve of the Hobbit myself, preferring my own mythology (which is just touched on) with itsconsistent nomenclature - Elrond, Gondolin and Esgarorth (??) escaped out of it- and organized history, to this rabble of Eddaic named dwarves out of thisVöluspá newfangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle house) and AngloSaxon (…). Any elves have a more gracious and cunning alphabet. Which appearson the pot of gold in one of the coloured illustrations of the American edition- they have chosen that one.
However there it is: I did not offer it for sale. But as the MS. was discovered (in a nunnery) by one of G. A and Unwin’s people and an offer made for it, I let it go. I knew I was in fortrouble. My children, for one thing, do not wholly approve of their privateamusements being turned to cash, even to pat for the excessive costs of theireducation. [That was the hope. Actually I have ear[n]ed £25 so far - butthe publishers write today and say “the first edn. has gone off, and yourfriends wanting first editions must hurry round to the booksellers”].
Also Oxford was mildly pained: my own college was frankly hurt, until both the Timesand the T.L.S took notice. I am now forgiven, but the matter is not mentioned.We are not in Pembroke expected to descend to the level of a J.B.S Haldane. Notthat I think that I have - except in the matter of illustrations. They are myown, I fear, and with the possible exception of the jacket, bad. As the mostintelligent reviewer (Richard Hughes in The New Statesman Dec. 4) frankly says.All the names are supposed to be pronounced as foreign names (more Latino)except those of Hobbits.* [* And Smaug is of course connected with smjuga sinceIcelandic was in a foolish moment substituted for the proper language of mytales.]
I cannot say how nice of you it was to write. It ?cheered me a good deal. I shall now, they say, have to do more. I offered my publishers something grand, a complete and heroic history of the Elves - and they clamour for more Hobbits. Mr Baggins had some [time? fame?] and properly went into retirement.
I hope this will find you ere Christmas and bring you my best wishes. I am afraid it is [?] a scrawl, but I am feeling rather tottery.I hope things go well with you.
Yours JRRT"
See also
Notes
- ↑ John D. Rateliff has noted an error in the 1987 transcription of the letter, cf. "A Fragment, Detached: The Hobbit and The Silmarillion", first published in French as "Un Fragment, détaché: Bilbo le Hobbit et le Silmarillion" in L'Arc et le Heaume: Tolkien 1892-2012 (July 2012).
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: I. Chronology, pp. 207-8
- ↑ "Nineteenth Century and Modern First Editions.1977", TolkienBooks.net (accessed 28 January 2013)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Return of the Shadow, "Foreword", p. 7
