A touching letter sent by one of the greatest authors of all time to a little boy 63 years ago is expected to spark an auction bidding battle.
During Christmas in 1961 J.R.R. Tolkien, the ‘father of fantasy literature’ and author of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, took time out to write to a young fan.
The letter was sent to Christopher Howard when he was eight years old, above. It was a late and unexpected festive surprise for the amazed and delighted youngster, who took great pleasure showing it to his family, friends and teachers.
After a while the treasured letter was placed in his keepsakes’ box where it has remained for six decades, only coming out about 20 years ago to be digitally scanned. Christopher, 71, a renewable energy consultant from Wye, near Canterbury, Kent, has now decided the time has come to let his incredible letter go.
It will be offered at Hertfordshire Auction House Hanson Ross on April 12 with a guide price of £8,000-£10,000. However, it could exceed expectations. In 2023 a lengthy autograph Tolkien letter, sent to his publisher, achieved a premium inclusive total of $32,500 (£25,671) at auction.
Christopher said: “Back in 1961 we were living in the North West of England at the curious address you can see on the envelope, ‘Asmall Lodge, Asmall Lane, Ormskirk, Lancashire’. My mother was an English teacher who would read bedtime stories to my younger brother and I, and when we were aged six and eight she started reading The Hobbit to us.
“I quickly realised I wanted to read it myself, which I did. The magical effect of reading words that created pictures in my mind amazed me. I could see the dragon, Smaug, in his lair, the Dwarves in their mountain halls, Wizards, Orcs and of course, Hobbits.
“I needed to know if the author had written any more books full of such thrilling adventures, and therefore wrote a letter to him which mum sent to his publisher, George Allen & Unwin. They passed it on to Professor Tolkien, who replied in a letter dated December 28, 1961.
“You can imagine how thrilled I was to receive this letter. Immediately, on seeing the envelope, in my mind Professor Tolkien’s beautiful handwriting transported our home straight to Middle Earth. It became, ‘A small Lodge, A small Lane, Ormskirk, Lancashire’.
“In his reply, he took time to carefully address every point in my letter, referred to my younger brother Nicky, mentioned characters in The Hobbit, and informed me in detail about the other book – or books – he had written, The Lord Of The Rings.”
The lengthy private letter, beautifully hand-written by fountain pen on headed paper, displays Tolkien’s Oxford address – 76 Sandfield Road, Headington – and his phone number.
Amanda Butler, head of operations at Hanson Ross, said: “It’s a wonderful find, a very touching, kind and personal letter. It reminds us of the art of letter-writing in a fast-paced world now dominated by emails and short and snappy text or WhatsApp messages.
“Professor Tolkien was a busy man and yet he found time at Christmas to write this delightful letter to a young fan. It’s hard to imagine any celebrity today composing something so special. The fact that our vendor has treasured the letter for life underlines its importance. It offers us a glimpse of Tolkien’s kindness and integrity and is a welcome reminder of old-fashioned values and courtesy. We very much hope to deliver the auction result it deserves.”
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (1892-1973) was an English academic, philologist and author of high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. From 1925-1945, he was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Oxford. From 1945 to retirement in 1959 he was the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, also at the University of Oxford. Tolkien was a close friend of fellow author C. S. Lewis and co-member of informal literary discussion group The Inklings
Though other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit followed by the huge impact of The Lord Of The Rings led to a resurgence of the genre. As a result, he is regarded as the ‘father’ of modern fantasy literature and one of the most influential authors of all time.
Auction: The J.R.R. Tolkien letter will by auctioned on April 12 at Hanson Ross, Royston, Hertfordshire.
Catalogues/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk | www.the-saleroom.com
Enquiries: [email protected]
Full transcript of the letter
December 28th 1961
76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford
Dear Christopher,
Thank you very much indeed for your letter. I was very pleased to have it, and I liked learning about the parts that specially pleased you. I don’t think Nicky missed much as The Hobbit was specially written for reading aloud. Though, of course, it is, I think, more fun to do the readings, and there are lots of books that can only be taken in quietly by oneself.
I am sorry that I did not get this off in time to wish you both a Merry Christmas, since yours arrived in good time for my Christmas, but there is a lot to do just before the 25th. But I wish you a very happy New Year.
I have in fact written other books in which Hobbits play a main part, and Bilbo makes an appearance – though not as a chief character as he is getting very old (60 years have gone by) and the story began on his 111th Birthday. (Which he calls eleventy-first and not hundred and eleventh!). But this book or books is very long (about 6 times as long as The Hobbit), and is in 3 volumes (1) The Fellowship of the Rings (2) The Two Towers (3) The Return of the Kings.
This is largely about Bilbo’s magic ring and Gandalf and Gollum are very important in it. I am afraid it’s very expensive, but it can be got out of any good public library. Some I am told keep several copies as it is in demand. There is not much fun in it though at the beginning, which is in Bilbo’s village, the Hobbits behave in their usual comic way but they soon get involved in very grim and rather frightening adventures which make old Smaug seem almost harmless by contrast.
If it’s any colder in Lancashire than it is down here then you must be frozen stiff. It was as cold here last night as in Sweden and has been freezing hard all day. I put some water out for the birds this morning at half past ten in the bright sunshine and it was frozen solid by lunch time.
Yours sincerely
J R R Tolkien
