Letter to Donna Sadlier

From Tolkien Gateway
Letter to Donna Sadlier.png

On 1 May 1972, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to Donna Sadlier.[1]

  • Publication: None.
  • Description: One page, typerscript, signed.

From the auction[edit | edit source]

J.R.R. Tolkien Typed Letter Signed. One page, 6" x 9", on his personal letterhead, London, n.d. [circa 1972]. Writing to Donna Sadlier in response to a request for an autograph, the author asks her to not "feel ashamed. . . . I receive every day of the week, from all parts of the world, requests for autographs; because these requests are so numerous I really have to restrict autographs to family and friends. When you wrote originally, Miss Hill quite rightly told you that my wife had just died, and I am very touched by your kind card.*" Below his signature he has added a footnote: "*So I send you a little autograph slip to put in a copy of my work." Tolkien himself died not too long after this letter was written in September 1973. Smoothed folds. Lightly damaged at the corners from being previously mounted. Two small pieces of tape at the edges of the central horizontal fold. Lightly toned along the upper edge. With the original transmittal envelope.

Transcription[edit | edit source]

It was most kind of you to write to me and please do not feel ashamed. As Miss Hall explained, I receive every day of the week, from all parts of the world, requests for autographs; because these requests are so numerous I really have to restrict autographs to family and friends. When you wrote originally, Miss Hill quite rightly told you that my wife had just died, and I am very touched by your kind card.* It was so thoughtful of you and I am very grateful.” [Tolkien has penned an asterisk after the word “card” and, after his signature, has again penned an asterisk and the word “*So” adding, in different type,] “I send you a little autograph slip to put in a copy of my work.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien[2]

References