The mother of a friend passed away and now the house has to be cleaned out. This is no ordinary project because the mother was a writer, poet and collector. Today the friend asked us to come and look through some of the remaining books to see if there were some things that we wanted for ourselves.
I found some books on writing and nice older copy of Roget's Thesaurus and I picked up some older paperback copies of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as a nice copy of The Hobbit. I opened The Hobbit and noticed an old letter postmarked Oxford, England. I thought the envelope would make a great souvenir and almost just tucked it back into the book. Then, I realized that I should pull the letter out just in case it was something important.
I scanned the note and almost passed out! It was a note signed by J.R.R. Tolkien! The ecstasy and the agony! I knew I had to hand it over but I was soooooo reluctant .... I held onto it for a minute and then showed the rightful owner the treasure that she had. She thanked me for the note, kept it (and the copy of The Hobbit) and I left with my other books and trinkets.
I am still trying to understand why this little brush with history was so moving to me ... I guess because I really admire Tolkien's work and have a lot of respect for his gift as a writer. I was connected to him just for a minute ... it was sweet.
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5 comments:
That's so cool. So, what did the note say?
Could you feel the enchantment? I'm deeply jealous. I think I would have been struck dumb for a few minutes. What a treasure.
I wish I could have seen the letter.
Gaa! It was not Foolish Knight who said "I wish I could have seen the letter" it was I, Why. So now I will restate it just to prove my authorship: I wish I could have seen the letter.
You touched the same thing Tolkien touched. That's pretty exciting. Your lives intersected for a brief moment!
PS- I didn't know you were out here in blogger world. I'm so excited to find you!!!
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