Dominic Winter Auctions
Lot 751
Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 5th impression, 1956; The Two Towers, 5th impression, 1957; The Return of the King, 3rd impression, 1957, folding map at end of each, original red cloth, lightly handled dust jackets, publisher's slipcase, 8vo (Qty: 6)Signed by the author to each front endpaper. Provenance: David A. Smith (1938-2015), his bookplates. David Smith was author of the standard reference work British Bee Books 1500-1976, (1979) and his important collection of antiquarian bee books were sold in these rooms on 08 November 2017. Additionally there is a signed manuscript notecard from Tolkien to Anthony D. Wood, Merton College, Oxford embossed at head, dated 22/2/1958, arranging a meeting with Wood and David Smith, 'Tuesday will do, though I find I have a guest to dinner that night, and as he may turn up anytime after 7 it might cut short our conversation. But he is also not interested in the topic (Mr Jonathan Wordsworth of Exeter, descendant of William's brother).' The note is a follow up to a two page letter from Tolkien to Smith, dated 19/2/58 (supplied here in photocopy), 'Dear Mr Wood, I should very much like to meet you and Mr, David Smith. I am making one of my (in recent years) rare sojourns in college, because of my wife's illness. Unfortunately, for this purpose, as she recovers tea-time is the period most convenient for me to visit her in hospital, and i expect I shall be engaged in this way every day in the immediate future.' Also there is a sheet of ruled paper with notes in red ink to both sides, made most probably by David Smith, in which he seemingly records answers from Tolkien to his questions on the trilogy: 'Aragorn had to arrive somehow and the ghost scene seemed most suitable. It was the part which was most difficult to write and caused most trouble. At first the whole passage was told in one, later I split it for convenience'... 'I could take it further. After 100 years of peace the system would be bound to break up. It seemed better not to. A lot of the past is written references to history are all genuine'... 'Gandalf really did die, it was sacrificial. He is rather like an angel. It is very important that he should not dominate people's wills. That is why he was an old man'... 'People have said Frodo was dishonest at the end and sh[oul]d not have been made a hero. Nonsense often we feel that we have to undertake a task that we know we will fail. We are only saved by grace, 'lead us not into temptation'.'... 'C.S. Lewis can't read the last bit up to the mountain - says its too horrible.'
