Letter up for auction?
 

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.

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.

I know. I was that Downer....

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

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!

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. :(

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!

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. ;)

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:

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)