Letter 127

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 127
Recipient	Stanley Unwin
Date	14 April 1950
Subject(s)	The Lord of the Rings, publication

Letter 127 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Summary

Stanley Unwin had asked his son Rayner for advice about publishing The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Rayner proposed publishing the former and dropping the latter.

Tolkien became angry by the corporate thinking of Unwin and his son, and demanded an immediate "yes" or "no" about publishing both books.

In the expanded edition

At the end Tolkien notes that he hadn't seen the article to which Unwin referred, and once again says that his health issues had prevented him from replying sooner.

Note

This letter marked the beginning of a feud Tolkien had with Allen & Unwin, and several letters later prompted him to write the "Milton Waldman Letter". For more on this episode, see Humphrey Carpenter's J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, part VI 1949-1966: Success, chapter 1, "Slamming the Gates".