by J. R. R. Tolkien; Christopher Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter
at least to explain the situation. Did I say something of all this in my letter of Dec. 13th? I certainly meant to. However, I certainly shall try to extricate myself, or at least the Silmarillion and all its kin, from the dilatory coils of A. and U. if I can – in a friendly fashion if possible.
124 To Sir Stanley Unwin
[Allen & Unwin had passed on a reader's enquiry as to whether Tolkien had written an 'Authentic History of Faery'.]
24 February 1950
Merton College, Oxford
Dear Unwin,
I am, I fear, a most unsatisfactory person. I am at present 'on leave', and away off and on; though the effort to cope with a mass of literary and 'learned' debts, that my leave was supposed to assist, has proved too much for me, especially as I have been troubled with my throat and have felt often far from well.
But at any rate I should long ago have answered your query, handed on from Mr Selby. Though dated Jan. 31 st, it was in fact addressed to me on Dec. 31st.
I cannot imagine and have not discovered what Mr Selby was referring to. I have, of course, not written an 'Authentic history of Faery' (and should not in any case have chosen such a title); nor have I caused any prophecy or rumour of any such work to be circulated. I must suppose that Mr Selby associates me with 'Faery', and has attached my name to someone eise's work It seems hardly likely that he can have come across some literary chat (of which in any case I am ignorant) in which somebody has referred to my Silmarillion (long ago rejected, and shelved). The title is not particularly fitting, and the work has been read in MS. only by about five persons, counting two of my children and your reader.
That, however, brings me to a more important topic (to me at any rate). In one of your more recent letters you expressed a desire still to see the MS. of my proposed work. The Lord of the Rings, originally expected to be a sequel to The Hobbit. For eighteen months now I have been hoping for the day when I could call it finished. But it was not until after Christmas that this goal was reached at last. It is finished, if still partly unrevised, and is, I suppose, in a condition which a reader could read, if he did not wilt at the sight of it.
As the estimate for typing a fair copy was in the neighbourhood of £100 (which I have not to spare), I was obliged to do nearly all myself. And now I look at it, the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me. My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion. My estimate is that it contains, even without certain necessary adjuncts, about 600,000 words. One typist put it higher. I can see only too clearly how impracticable this is. But I am tired. It is off my chest, and I do not feel that I can do anything more about it, beyond a little revision of inaccuracies. Worse still: I feel that it is tied to the Silmarillion.
You may, perhaps, remember about that work, a long legendary of imaginary times in a 'high style', and full of Elves (of a sort). It was rejected on the advice of your reader many years ago. As far as my memory goes he allowed to it a kind of Celtic beauty intolerable to Anglo-Saxons in large doses. He was probably perfectly right and just. And you commented that it was a work to be drawn upon rather than published.
Unfortunately I am not an Anglo-Saxon and though shelved (until a year ago), the Silmarillion and all that has refused to be suppressed. It has bubbled up, infiltrated, and probably spoiled everything (that even remotely approached 'Faery') which I have tried to write since. It was kept out of Farmer Giles with an effort, but stopped the continuation. Its shadow was deep on the later pans of The Hobbit. It has captured The Lord of the Rings, so that that has become simply its continuation and completion, requiring the Silmarillion to be fully intelligible – without a lot of references and explanations that clutter it in one or two places.
Ridiculous and tiresome as you may think me, I want to publish them both – The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings – in conjunction or in connexion. 'I want to' – it would be wiser to say 'I should like to', since a little packet of, say, a million words, of matter set out in extenso that Anglo-Saxons (or the English-speaking public) can only endure in moderation, is not very likely to see the light, even if paper were available at will.
All the same that is what I should like. Or I will let it all be. I cannot contemplate any drastic re-writing or compression. Of course being a writer I should like to see my words printed; but there they are. For me the chief thing is that I feel that the whole matter is now 'exorcized', and rides me no more. I can turn now to other things, such as perhaps the Little Kingdom of the Wormings, or to quite other matters and stories.
I am sorry that this letter is so long, and so full of myself. I am not really filled with any overweening conceit of my absurd private hobbies. But you have been very patient – expecting during the long years a sequel to The Hobbit, to fit a similar audience; though I know that you are aware that I have been going off the rails. I owe you some kind of explanation.
You will let me know what you think. You can have all this mountain of stuff, if you wish. It will take a reader who really reads a long time, I fear; though he may make up his mind with a sample. But I shall not have any just grievance (nor shall I be dreadfully surprised) if you decline so obviously unprofitable a proposition; and ask me to hurry up and submit some more reasonable book as soon as I can.
Yours sincerely
J. R. R. Tolkien.
P.S. Rayner, poor man, has of course read a large part of The Lord of the Rings, though not to the bitter end: I only finished the last 'book' quite recently. I hope he is prospering. How is little Farmer Giles doing, I wonder?
JRRT.
125 To Sir Stanley Unwin
[Unwin replied on 6 March, asking if the problem of the combined length of the two books might be solved by splitting them into 'three or four to some extent self-contained volumes'. In response to Tolkien's enquiry about Farmer Giles of Ham, he reported that, out of the first printing of 5,000 copies, 2,000 had been sold, and that the book had 'not yet done as well as we had hoped', though he said it would undoubtedly continue to sell.]
10 March 1950
3 Manor Road, Oxford
Dear Unwin,
Thank you for your letter of March 6th. I see in it your good will ; but also, I fear, your opinion that this mass of stuff is not really a publisher's affair at all, but requires an endowment. I am not surprised.
With regard to your enquiry about its divisibility. A work of great length can, of course, be divided up artificially into more handy bulks: the sort of process that produced sections of the big Oxford Dictionary labelled 'ONOMASTICAL – OUTING' and 'SIMPLE to SLEEP'. But the whole Saga of the Three Jewels and the Rings of Power has only one natural division into two parts (each of about 600,000 words): The Silmarillion and other legends; and The Lord of the Rings. The latter is as indivisible and unified as I could make it.
It is, of course, divided into sections for narrative purposes (six of them), and two or three of these, which are of more or less equal length, could be bound separately, but they are not in any sense self-contained.
I now wonder (I must confess, though as a 'seller' I suppose I should show more confidence) whether many beyond my friends, not all of whom have endured to the end, would read anything so long, even if they liked that kind of thing in moderation. I wonder still more if they would read, not to mention purchase, it serially, and if the pot, as it were, went off the boil. You must know much more about that than I do.
I realise the financial difficulties, and the remote chance of recovering the great cost. I have no money to sink in the bog, and I can hardly expect you to sink it. Please do not think that I shall feel that I have a just grievance if you decline to become involved, without much hesitation. After all the understanding was that you would welcome a sequel to The Hobbit, and this work can not be regarded as such in any practical sense, or in the matter of
atmosphere, tone, or audience addressed.
I am sorry that I presented such a problem. Wilfully, it may seem, since I knew long ago that I was courting trouble and producing the unprintable and unsaleable, most likely. I have not at the moment anything else completed to submit; but I am quite prepared to make something simpler and shorter soon. I feel, at the end of my leave of absence, a return of energy, and when the present time of trial is over (the process of removing all my teeth began yesterday, and that of removing my household goods begins shortly) I hope to feel still more. I think I shall soon put in hand other things long in petto.
All the same it would have been more encouraging if Farmer Giles could report better of his luck. Rather a donnish little squib after all? I cannot discover that he has been widely heard of. He does not seem to have been very forcibly brought to notice.
I always thought, that in so far as he has virtue, it would have been improved by other stories of the same kingdom and style; but the domination of the remoter world was so great that I could not make them. It may now prove different.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
J. R. R. Tolkien.
126 To Milton Waldman (draft)
10 March 1950
3 Manor Road, Oxford
Dear Waldman,
Sir Stanley Unwin has at length replied personally. The pertinent paragraph is:
'Your letter has indeed set us a problem! It would not have been easy to solve before the War; it is much more difficult now with costs of production about three times what they were then. In order to see more precisely what is involved would you tell us whether there is any possibility of breaking the million words into, say, three or four to some extent self-contained volumes. You may perhaps remember that when we published Murasaki's great work The Tale of Genji, we started by issuing it in six separate volumes, each under a different title, though the first four were, of course, all the Tale of Gengi, and the last two were more about his son.'
I have replied to the effect that I see in his letter his good will, but also perceive his opinion that this mass of stuff is not suitable for ordinary publication and requires endowment. (I had in my letter made a strong point that the Silmarillion etc. and The Lord of the Rings went together, as one long Saga of the Jewels and the Rings, and that I was resolved to treat them as one thing, however they might formally be issued.) I noted that the mass naturally divides only between The Silmarillion and The Lord (each about 600,000 words), but that the latter is not divisible except into artificial fragments. I added that I shall not be surprised if he declines to become involved in this monstrous Saga; and that now it is off my chest, I am very willing to turn out something simpler and shorter (and even actually 'juvenile') for him, soon.
There at the moment the matter waits. I profoundly hope that he will let go without demanding the MS. and two months for 'reading'. But I am not sanguine. But time runs short. I shall soon be plunged back into business – I already am involved, as I find things getting very out of hand during my absence; and I shall not be free again for writing until I return from Ireland at the beginning of July.
Unwin tells me that Farmer Giles has only sold 2000 copies. I have replied that I have observed no advertisements.. . .
With best wishes.
Yours sincerely
J. R. R. Tolkien.
I move to 99 Holy-well, but the date is uncertain, as the house needs a lot of repair. I hope but hardly expect to be settled before St George's Day. Merton will always find me. JRRT.
127 To Sir Stanley Unwin
[On 3 April, just as Tolkien had sent him a note requesting a reply to his letter of 10 March, Unwin wrote to say that he had asked the opinion of his son Rayner, who was now studying in America, at Harvard University. He enclosed Rayner's comments, though they were not really intended for Tolkien's eyes. Rayner Unwin wrote: 'The Lord of the Rings is a very great book in its own curious way and deserves to be produced somehow. I never felt the lack of a Silmarillion when reading it. .... Surely this is a case for an editor who would incorporate any really relevant material from The Silmarillion into The Lord of the Rings. .... If this is not workable I would say publish The Lord of the Rings as a presage book, and after having a second look at it, drop The Silmarillion.']
14 April 1950
3 Manor Road, Oxford
Dear Unwin,
It was odd that our letters crossed. I might have waited a day longer; but the matter is for me becoming urgent. Weeks have become precious. I want a decision yes, or no: to the proposal I made, and not to any imagined possibilities.
Your letters were, as always, very kind; though I was puzzled by the first, and its enclosure of an extract from a letter of Rayner's. This was not, as you remarked, intended for me; which made it all the more interesting to me (and I do not refer to the compliment that it contained). The puzzling thing was that it seemed unsuitable for my eye (from your point of view); and I wonder precisely why you sent it to me.
My present conclusion is that you are in general agreement with Rayner, and thought that letting me see his advice was a good way of telling me what is the most I can hope for – since he is about as favourable a critic as I am likely to get. But I should like to be sure.
The kick is plainly in the last sentence of the excerpt (before the remembrance to me): 'If this is not workable, etc.' This is surely to reveal policy a little nakedly. Also it shows a surprising failure to understand the situation, or my letter. But I will say no more until I hear from you.....
Yours sincerely,
J. R. R. Tolkien.
128 From a letter to Allen & Unwin
[Following Tolkien's ultimatum. Sir Stanley Unwin replied: 'As you demand an immediate "yes" or "no" the answer is "no"; but it might well have been yes given adequate time and the sight of the complete typescript. ' The matter rested there for the time being. In July, Allen & Unwin sent Tolkien the proofs of a new edition of The Hobbit, incorporating minor corrections to the text, and – much to Tolkien's surprise-substituting, for the original, the new version of part of Chapter V, 'Riddles in the Dark', which he had sent them in 1947 merely as 'a specimen of rewriting' (see no. III), and which he had not necessarily intended for publication.]
1 August 1950
The Hobbit: I return the proofs herewith. They did not require much correction, but did need some consideration. The thing took me much by surprise. It is now a long while since I sent in the proposed alteration of Chapter V, and tentatively suggested the slight remodelling of the original Hobbit. I was then still engaged in trying to fit on the sequel, which would have been a simpler task with the alteration, besides saving most of a chapter in that over-long work. However, I never heard any more about it at all; and I assumed that alteration of the original book was ruled out. The sequel now depends on the earlier version; and if the revision is really published, there must follow some considerable rewriting of the sequel.
I must say that I could wish that I had had some hint that (in any circumstances) this change might be made, before it burst on me in page-proof. However, I have now made up my mind to accept the change and its consequences. The thing is now old enough for me to take a fairly impartial view, and it seems to me that the revised version is in itself better, in motive and narrative – and certainly would make the sequel (if ever published) much more natural.
I did not mean the suggested revision to be printed off; but it seems to have come out pretty well in the wash.
129 From a letter to Sir Stanley Unwin
[Allen & Unwin asked Tolkien to supply a 'precise wording' for a note in the new edition of The Hobbit which would explain the changes in the new text.]
10 September 1950
Well, there it is: the alteration is now made, and cannot, I suppose, be unmade. Such people as I have consulted think that the alteration is in itself an improvement (apart from the question of a sequel). That is something. But when I tried to consider 'a precise wording' for a note
on the revision in an English edition, I did not find the matter as simple as I had thought.
I have now on my hands two printed versions of a crucial incident. Either the first must be regarded as washed out, a mere miswriting that ought never to have seen the light; or the story as a whole must take into account the existence of two versions and use it. The former was my original simpleminded intention, though it is a bit awkward (since the Hobbit is fairly widely known in its older form) if the literary pretence of historicity and dependence on record is to be maintained. The second can be done convincingly (I think), but not briefly explained in a note.
In the former case, or in doubt, the only thing to do, I fancy, is Just to say nothing. I am in doubt, so I propose at the moment just to say nothing; though I do not like it. There is, in any case, I take it, no question of inserting a note into the American reprint. And you will no doubt warn me in good time when an English one becomes necessary.
In the meanwhile I send you a specimen of the kind of thing that I should want to insert in an altered reprint – if I decide to recognise two versions of the Ring-finding as part of the authentic tradition. This is not intended as copy; but if you would return it, with any comment you like, it would be helpful.