Letter to Miss Stanley-Smith (22 November 1956)

2012-06-11T17:02:04Z

65.205.53.50:

[[Image:Miss Stanley-Smith 22 November 1956.png|thumb]]
'''Miss Stanley-Smith 22 November 1956''' is a [[Letters not published in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien"|letter]] from [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] to Miss Stanley-Smith, librarian at [[Wikipedia:Deddington|Deddington]] Library, written on [[22 November]] [[1956]].<ref name=CG>{{CG|C}}, pp. 496-8</ref><ref>"[http://www.deddingtonnews.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/8080/Tolkien.pdf Deddington Library, opened by Tolkien in 1956, under threat from OCC]", [http://www.deddingtonnews.co.uk/ DeddingtonNews.co.uk] (accessed 23 December 2011)</ref><ref>Sam McGregor, "[http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9432878.Tolkien_letters_return_to_rightful_home/ Tolkien letters return to rightful home]" (dated 23 December 2011), [http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/ OxfordMail.co.uk] (accessed 23 December 2011)</ref>
*'''Subject:''' Tolkien accepts an invitation to give a speech at the opening of the new library (on [[14 December]]).<ref name=CG/>

The letter says as follows:
<div style="text-align: center;">
76 Sandfield Road,
Headington,
Oxford,
Tel. 61639
</div>

<div style="text-align: right; direction: ltr; margin-left: 1em;">
Thursday, November 22nd.
1956.

</div>
Dear Miss Stanley-Smith,

Fortunately I think I can manage Friday 14 Nove December. I say ‘fortunately’, because though I dislike talking (in this sense), lecturing, or addressing a gathering, I should have been sorry to refuse your invitation: you sugar the central pill so attractively. I should be delighted to visit Deddington and have lunch with you; and I fear that the fee will be more than ample for the performance. Short? Ten minutes? A quarter of an hour?
I will consult you later, if I may, on the sort of thing likely to be most appropriate.
As for my own writings: beside the two you name there is Farmer Giles of Ham (Allen & Unwin), specially appropriate, since it is localized in Oxfordshire. Other poems and stories are, I fear, either scattered in periodicals or o.p.2 and await collection. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Clarendon Press), since it’s an edition of a mediaeval poem, would, I imagine, be regarded as too technical, specially as I have not yet published the translation which has twice been broadcast.
It would be most kind if you could send a car, as I have none of my own now and have in consequence seldom visited Deddington, in post-war years, though I used often to do so.

<div style="text-align: center;">
Yours sincerely,

</div> J.R.R. Tolkien

P.S. I wonder if Mrs. Lionel Hitchens is the mother of Miss Phoebe Hitchens, whom I have met, since my daughter knows her. She was, I think, the cousin (?) of the woman novelist of the same name - (Noughts and Crosses …etc.).

JRR T.

==See also==
*[[The Banbury Advertiser 19 December 1956|''The Banbury Advertiser'' 19 December 1956]]
*[[Miss Stanley-Smith 19 December 1956]]
*[[Oxford Mail 15 December 1956|''Oxford Mail'' 15 December 1956]]
{{references}}
[[Category:Letters]]

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Letter to Miss Stanley-Smith (22 November 1956)