The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 1: Chronology. Christina Scull

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СКАЧАТЬ Tolkien attends an English Faculty Board meeting at 3.30 p.m. in Oriel College Lecture Room No. 4. – Tolkien possibly attends a meeting of the Committee for Comparative Philology at 5.15 p.m. in the Delegates Room of the Clarendon Building.

      19 June 1937 Trinity Full Term ends.

      23 June 1937 Encaenia.

      June or July 1937 A.H. Smith calls on Tolkien in regard to his Ancrene Riwle edition for the Early English Text Society.

      1 July 1937 Tolkien’s Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, is published. In the weeks to follow he will receive several letters of appreciation and praise: correspondents include R.W. Chambers, Allen Mawer (1 July), David Nichol Smith (4 July), F.E. Harmer (5 July), George S. Gordon (8 July), F. Molina (29 July), and Oliver Elton (3 August). At least Chambers and Harmer, as well as Elaine Griffiths and Kenneth Sisam, receive copies personally from the author.

      8 July 1937 C.A. Furth writes to Tolkien. He is sending a new Hobbit sample binding case with different lettering and without the lines under the title, which he agrees is an improvement. But unless Tolkien feels strongly about it, Allen & Unwin would like to leave the wavy lines at top and bottom.

      ?9 July 1937 Tolkien belatedly writes to C.A. Furth, sending the Hobbit binding design ‘at far as it had got a month ago, rather as evidence that I did do something. I thought the wavy line might be transformed into something significant; and tried to find an ornamental dragon-formula’ (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins). But he thinks that the revised cover will do, and returns the sample case. He asks what the Americans think of the specimens he sent. He says that he has not yet drawn any new Hobbit illustrations but will start to do so if they are still wanted. – In the event, he evidently does not wait for confirmation of the latter, and will soon begin to produce five new pictures in pen and watercolour, some of which will evolve through a series of preliminary sketches. See note.

      ?22 July 1937 In reply to a request from Susan Dagnall, Tolkien writes to Allen & Unwin, enclosing the most recent photograph of himself that exists. He asks again if Houghton Mifflin are likely to require colour illustrations for The Hobbit from him, as he does ‘not want to labour in vain.’ Since he has to be in London on 28 July, he would like to call at Allen & Unwin’s offices and submit what he has done. ‘Your production dep[artmen]t might perhaps kindly advise me as to whether the efforts are passable, and in any case suitable for reproduction’ (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins). – By now Tolkien has made four colour illustrations for The Hobbit: Rivendell, Bilbo Woke Up with the Early Sun in His Eyes, Bilbo Comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves, and Conversation with Smaug.

      23 July 1937 A.W. Rablen, an undergraduate at Oxford for the past few years, writes to Tolkien, listing misprints Rablen has found in the 1930 impression of the Tolkien–Gordon edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

      24 July 1937 Stanley Unwin writes to Tolkien. He and C.A. Furth would be pleased to see Tolkien on 28 July, and suggests that they meet at 12.20 p.m. Allen & Unwin will cable Houghton Mifflin if they have not had a reply by 26 July. Unwin asks if Tolkien owns the copyright to the photograph he sent.

      25 July 1937 Tolkien writes to Stanley Unwin. He will arrive at Allen & Unwin’s offices at about 12.30 p.m., if his train is on time. He does not think that it will take long to tell him whether what he has done is suitable, or if not suitable, what is wrong. The photograph he has supplied was paid for by the students in his department when he left Leeds; he is not sure of the copyright position.

      28 July 1937 Tolkien goes to London, arriving probably on the 12.05 p.m. train. Around 12.30 p.m. he visits Allen & Unwin’s offices in Museum Street, taking with him the four finished colour illustrations for The Hobbit. These are approved and left to be forwarded to Houghton Mifflin. He is scheduled to be at a meeting in Curzon Street from 3.00–4.30 p.m.

      29 July 1937 Tolkien is in London again. Although Stanley Unwin had invited him to lunch, apparently when he next came down from Oxford, Tolkien felt that 29 July was ‘too soon … to bother you again’ (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins).

      August 1937 Tolkien writes this date on a page of rough notes related to The Fall of Arthur.

      6 August 1937 Mabel Day writes to Tolkien. Although most members of the Early English Text Society Committee are in favour of publishing the texts of the Ancrene Riwle line-by-line, A.W. Pollard considers it unnecessary and not advisable. Pollard is disappointed that Tolkien still has not provided detailed evidence of the advantages of retaining line-endings as in the original manuscripts. She asks Tolkien for copy to set up thirty-two pages so that the Committee can see how a line-by-line treatment would work. Since the point of view has also been extended that if the line-endings are kept, so too should contractions, Day asks for two pages with contractions not expanded, and which includes a passage in Latin. She requests the material in time to be printed by November.

      ?7–?21 August 1937 Tolkien and his family take a holiday in Sidmouth.

      10 August 1937 C.A. Furth writes to Tolkien. He is sending him an advance copy of The Hobbit and offering more. He reports that Houghton Mifflin think that Tolkien’s dust-jacket design has a ‘British look’, and that they have assumed that the drawings Tolkien sent merely as examples of his work are illustrations for The Hobbit.

      13 August 1937 Tolkien writes to C.A. Furth. He asks that copies of The Hobbit be sent to George S. Gordon and R.W. Chambers, enclosing notes that Tolkien has written. Allen & Unwin may also use the colour illustrations if they wish. Tolkien suggests that they ‘keep them in “cold storage”’ when they are returned from America (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins). He has now completed a colour version of the frontispiece, The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water. – Tolkien also writes to Stanley Unwin, hoping to be able to have lunch with him when he is next in London, probably in November. He had time only to glance at Elaine Griffiths’ work on the Clark Hall Beowulf before going to Sidmouth, but will correct or help in correcting it, and write his ‘small bit’, as soon as he returns to Oxford (Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins).

      16 August 1937 C.A. Furth writes to Tolkien. He has sent the copies of The Hobbit as requested. He returns the drawing of a dragon that Tolkien had made for the binding. Furth agrees that the colour illustrations may be stored in the Allen & Unwin safe.

      28 August 1937 Tolkien writes to Mabel Day. He is working on the specimens she requested in her letter of 6 August. He had hoped to complete work by now on his transcription and collation of Ancrene Wisse, but because of the death of the librarian at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and other difficulties, he has not been able to see the original manuscript; and possible library repairs at Cambridge may make consultation impossible for some time. He asks if the Early English Text Society has formally asked for permission to publish the text of the manuscript, as the acting librarian knows of no such permission. Tolkien feels that he said all that he could about the advantages of line-by-line presentation in a letter long ago to A.W. Pollard (he believes) and in conversation with Robin Flower and A.H. Smith. He thanks Day for valuable notes on A Middle English Vocabulary, sent long ago, and will make what use he can of them under the severe limitations of plate-correction, if an opportunity for another reprint arises – though he now has no control over the glossary.

      30 August 1937 СКАЧАТЬ