1957 J.R.R. Tolkien Letter
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GUEST:
It's a paper written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
APPRAISER:
And it's written, you can barely see it here, but it's from Oxford, where he was teaching.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
He taught early and middle English at Oxford. And it's dated '57. And when I saw that distinctive handwriting, right away I said, "It's Tolkien." It was almost like a medieval- looking hand in a very kind of a calligraphic but a gothic looking hand. So right away I said, "It's a Tolkien letter, great." Flipped it over, it's a two-page Tolkien letter.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Which is even better. And there's... he signed it right down there at the bottom, his beautiful signature. And he's mentioning books like The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Farmer Giles of Ham. So you're getting his... some of his great works being mentioned. I looked into Ready. He was the director of libraries at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Mr. Ready came in 1956 to Marquette with the mission of building up a memorial library that was just being built, and he was gonna fill it with archives. He contacted a book dealer in London called Bertram Rota, mentioned in this letter, and through Bertram Rota, he got an introduction to J.R.R. Tolkien. And in here, he says, "I saw Mr. Bertram Rota on Saturday," he crosses it out, he puts, "Friday last." "And handed over Hobbit material and Farmer Giles, including two early manuscripts I had discovered." Bertram Rota brokered a deal with Marquette University to purchase the archival material of some of his greatest works for Marquette. Tolkien, in 1957, was not very popular. His works had not caught on in England. He was just kind of having hard times financially, like anybody else, he's a professor, he's working hard, and he's writing all the time his own works. So he sells the greatest works, the full manuscripts, all the supporting material, all the drafts and revisions, to Marquette University, of The Hobbit, 1937, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, '54, '55, and Farmer Giles, to Marquette. And you know how much he sold it to them for?
GUEST:
Ummm...
APPRAISER:
The equivalent £1,500, which is less than $5,000 in that day.
GUEST:
Dang.
APPRAISER:
Today, The Hobbit manuscript would be more than a million dollars, Lord of the Rings easily more than a million dollars. Huge amount of value now. This letter is critical because of the date. In '57, he hadn't yet sent the manuscripts over, so this was right during the period of the negotiation. How did you acquire the letter?
GUEST:
I was living in Milwaukee for seven years. I met Tom, and he worked in the Marquette. He was in the archives, too, with Mr. Ready. He was a member of the Tolkien Society.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And has visited Christopher Tolkien, and I inherited it through his estate.
APPRAISER:
Did you ever have it appraised?
GUEST:
I had a librarian tell me it was only worth like $700.
APPRAISER:
And when was that?
GUEST:
Back in '95.
APPRAISER:
'95. He continues to grow, with all the films, with the interest in Tolkien, it doesn't diminish, it increases. I would feel comfortable estimating this at auction at about $8,000 to $12,000. And I would think insurance wise you'd be looking at more like $15,000 as an insurance.
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