Letter to Ronald Ashton
Ronald Ashton 12 March 1927 is a letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Ronald Ashton (a former student at the University of Leeds), composed on 12 March 1927.[1]
- Subject: Tolkien offers to write a testimonial. Comments on Oxford, "a centre of the motor industry: that fantastic lunacy", and on the Universities at Leeds and Oxford.
- Publication: Quotes appear in Michael Silverman, Catalogue Twenty-Seven.
Transcription
[First page (in part):]
Neither of us were ever under the delusion that Oxford = Paradise: we know it too well. There are still lingering vestiges of civilisation in Oxford of course, a civilization [sic] that for historical reasons did not reach the North before it was overwhelmed by the new barbarism - but it is still part of modern England (and a centre of the motor industry: that fantastic lunacy).
[Second page:]
As for myself I find much that makes me regret Leeds very much. I doubt very much whether I should ever have torn myself away if I had been a single man, and able to disregard small differences in salary. The English School here is a battle-ground and there is small peace and little sense in it. I hope when you [?have breed] your unhappy ?????? ?? ?? [?Eng.] Dept. - glorious p??? of ????-????? pseudo-science - ?? ??? you ???? ???- -job ??? [?reasonable] ??st. Your qualifications are ???? ????? any[?how]. I hope you are ???? and f?????????. Please ????????? me [?kindly] ??? ??? Mr. Ashton.
[?Sincerely]
JRR Tolkien
See also
References
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, "Addenda and Corrigenda to The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2006) Vol. 1: Chronology" at HammondandScull.com (accessed 20 May 2012)
