When JRR Tolkien published his first story of a questing hobbit 80 years ago he had no inkling of the fanmail that would follow, or the frustration it would bring.
Long before social media allowed authors to satisfy their fans with online postings, Tolkien found himself beset with messages of adulation from fellow writers, a president’s daughter, a young Terry Pratchett, a future queen of Denmark and Joni Mitchell.
The letters, which have not been seen by scholars or the public, will go on display in summer 2018 at the Bodleian Library in Oxford at the exhibition Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.
Tolkien became overwhelmed by his fan mail
CAMERA PRESS
The letters and the author’s responses show how Tolkien was at first flattered but eventually became overwhelmed in the mid-1960s when sales of the