574

J. R. R. Tolkien

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
J. R. R. Tolkien

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2017 Aug 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS, one page both sides, 5.25 x 7, personal letterhead, November 4, 1968. Letter to Mary Fairburn, an artist who sent him paintings of several scenes from Lord of the Rings. In part: “I have been much occupied in the reordering of my house (very slowly owing to my disability which is only v. gradual in improvement) and also in family affairs.* (And also much grieved and affected in all my affairs by the death of my friend Stanley Unwin) I have considered your suggestions. A major difficulty, for me, is my lack of wall-space (I have been obliged to get rid of some pictures already) and I cannot guarantee to keep or set apart for inclusion in a wall any pictures. I should be grateful, if you could at some time convenient return to me the picture of Galadriel at the Well in Lorien. If I may keep this as my own. It attracts me because it so very nearly corresponds to my own mental vision of the scene. (It also would be a v. good specimen to show to Mr. Rayner Unwin)…but I do not, I promise, demand this, since my gift was a free one.” He adds a postscript at the top, signed “J. R. R. T.,” in full: “I should, of course, allow the picture to be included in any collection of exhibition of your work, or used for reproduction in an illustrated edition, as long as the original was ultimately returned to me. I shall keep it, for the present time, unframed.” In fine condition.

After having seen various illustrated editions of The Hobbit produced—most not to his liking—Tolkien was understandably weary of would-be illustrators. Just one year before receiving Fairburn’s paintings, Tolkien wrote to his publisher Rayner Unwin, ‘As far as an English edition goes, I myself am not at all anxious for The Lord of the Rings to be illustrated by anybody whether a genius or not.’ There were a handful of artists whose Lord of the Rings–inspired work he did appreciate, but he made a clear distinction between what he liked on artistic merit versus what he believed was fit to accompany text. In the 1947 essay ‘On Fairy Stories’ mentioned here, Tolkien explains: ‘However good in themselves, illustrations do little good to fairy-stories. The radical distinction between all art (including drama) that offers a visible presentation and true literature is that…literature works from mind to mind and is thus more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more poignantly particular.’ Based on all of Tolkien’s comments and correspondence, this was a strong conviction. However, he was so struck by Fairburn’s work that he did again begin discussions with his publisher about an illustrated edition, referenced here when he mentions showing a sample to Rayner Unwin. Although that never came to fruition, Fairburn’s illustrations finally saw publication as the basis of HarperCollins’s official Tolkien calendar for 2015.