Child, I also thought of the Snergs as a main influence for Tolkien's Hobbits. I managed to find a publisher who recently started puting
Snergs in print. Here's the location:
oldearthbooks.com. I'm getting a copy at the end of the month, so we'll need to start a thread on that.
lmp, your posts indicate to me that Tolkien liked
Silvie and Bruno and not
Alice. I read Humphrey Carpenter's biography and the book indicates that Tolkien liked
Alice as a child (or somewhere I read). Are you saying that Tolkien didn't think of
Alice as fantasy nor faerie-story, and simply that? Or that Tolkien really didn't like the book? Just trying to clearify.
~M