Letter up for auction?

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

I have just run across this. http://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=555

The staionery, which is printed with "Professor J. R. R. Tolkien" at the top, has me wondering if it is real. Seem that I recall reading (in one of his letters) that this was not a correct form of address.

[Bêthberry]

Isn't that the very same Miss Honeybourne about whom a Downer posted some time this summer? I recall a discussion of Tolkien's analysis of her name, which was distinctly geographical, had nothing to do with bees or birds.

But to return to the letter, I can't recall any mention that Tolkien had his own personal letterhead in the Collected Letters. There isn't any letterhead reproduced with the letter in the frontispiece to the Collected Letters. Seems a bit of a puff up if you ask me. His professional letters would have been typed on academic letterhead I should think.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Isn't that the very same Miss Honeybourne about whom a Downer posted some time this summer? .

I know. I was that Downer....

And here's another letter. http://tolkienletter.blogspot.com/

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Ah, ha! This is the letter I was remembering.

Originally Posted by Letter #178

By the way, there is no need to alter 'Mr' to Professor. In proper Oxford tradition professor is not a title of address - or was not, though the habit has drifted in from places where 'professors' are powerful little domestic potentates.

Evidently he did use the designation on his stationery, as evidenced by Letter #112, though I will not speculate on his status as a domestic potentate!

Sorry davem, that I missed the earlier references to Miss Honeybourne. And I'm feeling quite crippled here at work as the fiendish filtering software keeps me from opening the most tempting links.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

Ah, ha! This is the letter I was remembering.

Evidently he did use the designation on his stationery, as evidenced by Letter #112, though I will not speculate on his status as a domestic potentate!

Ah, that one. Good find, Hilde. I can well imagine "The Professor" laughing at custom while still using it, you know.


It's a bit interesting as Carpenter's note says that is a postcard. Did postcards have a cheaper postal rate than enveloped letters and were they usd for quick notes and queries and such? Given that #112 includes the address of Merton College, I wonder what the practice was of official Oxford letterhead. Is that in effect an official letterhead rather than personal stationary? Or did the tweedy set include both their place of work and personal abode on their official paper? That certainly would not be done these days in North America.

It's quite a conundrum, figuring out this wee bit of cultural custom.

By the by, that link from davem includes this passage written by Tolkien, dated 9 June 1945. I've heard Tolkien fans adamently insist that The Professor would never use such language!

Originally Posted by http://tolkienletter.blogspot.com/

Professors, too, seem dying or retiring everywhere, and as I am now (as a survivor) or adviser in half a dozen places, I have had a hell of a lot of letters to write.

Of course, I hasten to add that I can't find any information that would verify those letters on that blog--or the home page for that blog. Who is this "David' who has posted the letters and where are they--in a private collection or in the many university and BBC archives?

In North America, "professor" is a job title. The title of "Doctor" derived from the PhD degree, however, is a lifetime sentence.

[davem]

More on the letter. I was a bit rushed when I posted earlier. I found the link via the Plaza & my friend Halfir over there pointed out that there is a mention of the letter & its recipient in the Tolkien Companion & Guide:

The Tolkien Companion & Guide Vol. Chronology p. 292

2 June 1945 Tolkien writes to an Oxford acquaintance named Maegraith, who has sent several stories he has written and asked for Tolkien's opinion. Tolkien apologizes for not having acknowleged their receipt earlier; he has been busy with endless jobs and examinations, and due to the death or retirement of professors everywhere he is an elector or advisor in half a dozen places and consequently has many letters to write. He now provides three and a half pages of comments on Maegraith's stories.

[Mänwe]

For anyone's interest there have been a number of Tolkien items sold on the site, and using the http://www.rrauction.com/past_auction_results.cfm link you can seach "tolkien". There was a letter you'll see sold in June with his son's current address on the letterhead.

I happened to search the house address and an exact match was returned; the building had planning permission in October of 2002 to be turned from a hair salon into a day nursery. Curious detail (if it is the very building)