Letter to Miss J.L. Curry
On 15 July 1964, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to Miss J.L. Curry.[1]
- Description: 2 pages, 8vo, a light blue aerogramme, addresses on verso, Oxford, undated but postmarked 15 July 1964.
- Publication: Extracts from the letter, and a reproduction in a photograph of the final page of the letter, appeared in Sotheby's Literature, History & Illustrated Books 10 July 2001.[2]
Contents[edit | edit source]
Fine autograph letter signed, about Walt Disney, offer a remarkable critique of Walt Disney:
"[...] I recognize his talent, but it has always seemed to me hopelessly corrupted. Though in most of the 'pictures' proceeding from his studios there are admirable or charming passages, the effect of all of them to me is disgusting. Some have given me nausea [...]"
He also accused Disney of being in his business practices "simply a cheat: willing and even eager to defraud the less experienced by trickery sufficently 'legal' to keep him out of jail"; he adds that his own affairs are in the hands of Allen & Unwin ("a firm with the highest repute"); that he is "not innocent of the profit-motive" himself (although "I should not have given any proposal from Disney any consideration at all. I am not all that poor [...]"; and that he has been delayed for some weeks in finishing this letter because of illness and lack of secretary.
References
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: I. Chronology, p. 619
- ↑ "Literature, History and Illustrated Books. 2001", TolkienBooks.net (accessed 2 January 2012)
