[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I don't know that any Disney books really took off here.

They did not take off in the States either, proof being that each book soon went out of print. Same as Britain. But they sold well enough that new ones kept being printed, same as Britain. Their sales market would have been the real fans, the same as the Doctor Who books currently (and formerly) being produced which likewise are mostly not reprinted, even within Britain.

I'm a bit fond of rooting through old children's books in second hand bookshops and I confess I've never seen any Disney ones older than ones from about the 50s or 60s.

The web shows that they existed. Ones older than the 50s would be expected to be rare. Ones from the 30s even rarer. No surprise there.

I also think that if Tolkien didn't like the art style then he's not that likely to have picked up the books for his children unless they pestered him - and apart from Priscilla (possibly) were probably too old to do that by this time?

Neither I nor anyone else here has ever suggested that Tolkien ever bought any of those books. What is your point in saying that something that no-one suggested ever happened didn’t happen? Of course Tolkien probably never bought a book illustrated in a style in loathed.

What is the exact date of his first comment about Disney?

As I’ve posted before the date on the letter is 13 May 1937. The letter is to C. A. Furth, Allen & Unwin. The comment is:

… as long as it is possible (I should like to add) to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all of whose works I have a heartfelt loathing.)

The word works may cover various animated cartoons or may cover animated cartoons and books. That Disney is here connected by Tolkien with book illustration suggests to me that Tolkien had seen both cartoons and books and had loathed both. The books were published in Britain in the 30s. They existed in Britain.

Tolkien need only have spotted some of them at least once in a sale bin to have convinced him that American children’s book illustrators were sometimes influenced by Disney. In fact, so far as I know, the only American children’s books of the 30s that could be said to be “from or influenced by the Disney studios″ would be books containing material derived from the American cartoons or inspired by them. Tolkien might not know this.

I don’t find an early Disney animated eagle, but here are some early Disney owls: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4...ney%201931.jpg . Here are some cartoon eagles in general: https://www.google.ca/search?q=eagle...=u&source=univ , mostly much later from various sources. Imagine almost any of these used in the illustration “Bilbo Awoke with the Early Morning Sun in his Eyes” and it should be obvious what Tolkien feared. However eagles drawn in this style are unlikely to appear in any book, save funny (supposedly) comic books or a few with pictures that are intentionally in similar style.