Posted by Lyn on August 07, 2006 at 14:45:39 user LynMellone.
Ever since I had read the complete exchange between Ransome and Tolkien that was published in Signalling From Mars, I have wondered about some of the things they said to each other. Tolkien was a master of “specialized politeness language,” as Tom Shippey puts it in The Road to Middle-earth. So-o-o-o-o . . . . .
When Tolkien referred to “Ransomes . . . winnowed of the chaff left behind in the nursery,” was it merely polite deference to an already established and recognized author of a popular series of children’s books? Or had his sons really treasured the Swallows and Amazons books.?
I had heard that Christopher Tolkien, the literary executor of his father’s estate and the only one of Tolkien’s sons still living, was somewhat of a recluse. But after making a pest of myself at an email address for the Tolkien Estate, I received a reply from Christopher’s son Adam, who relayed the message that his father confirmed Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons books had been popular in the Tolkien household — with Christopher recalling specifically Swallows and Amazons and Missee Lee. Adam then went beyond the scope of my questions to add: “It may interest you to know that my father prolonged the pleasure of discovery of these sailing adventures by placing the books in my direction, and I enjoyed them also very much as a small boy.” Since Missee Lee was published four years later than The Hobbit, it is apparent that the household continued to enjoy AR’s books as they became available. Tolkien was not merely being polite and deferential: he knew what his children read and what they enjoyed reading.
In his reply to AR, Tolkien offered to send a corrected copy of the book if The Hobbit were reprinted, but there was no new edition until 1951! Did anyone remember this promise then?
Apparently not. There was no trace of a second copy of The Hobbit in AR’s library when it was divided between the books that Evgenia donated to Abbot Hall and those that went to the Pollack Library at the California State University, Fullerton, in the U.S. AR’s original copy of The Hobbit is in the locked bookcase in the “Ransome Room,” the Swallows and Amazons exhibit at the Museum of Lakeland Life.
When Ransome wrote back that he had marked in his copy of The Hobbit all the corrections Tolkien had sent with his reply to Ransome, was it mere rhetoric? Or did AR literally take out his pen and mark those places in his book?
It was to the Museum of Lakeland Life that I directed that question. Had AR *really* marked the corrections Tolkien sent? When my first inquiry to the Assistant Keeper received no response, I sent another . . . and another . . . and another. I could not fly over from California to ask in person, but one of our own TarBoarders “was keen to help” take on my research project and visit the museum to see if he could gain access to the book As it transpired, the person I had emailed at the museum had been working on a different exhibit at another site while my emails piled up. She was very apologetic about my emails and also very helpful, providing access to Ransome’s original copy of The Hobbit. Here is the report, with some editorial comments from me in the square brackets:
Ch 1, p 27: ' "excitable little man" said Gandalf '
AR has scored through man and written 'hobbit' in pencil in the margin [note the “pencil”]
Ch 1, p 30: ' "five feet high is the door and three abreast may enter it" say the runes.'
AR has scored through both 'is' and 'may enter it' and inserted a ' ^ ' between three and abreast. In the margin he has written 'may walk'. He did not put a ' ^ ' in the margin, and he used ink - implying he added these notes on two separate readings?? This is the improvement AR suggests (i.e. change for changes sake not a mistake) [We know this change was made, because this is the current reading.]
Ch 3, p64: ' "stand by the grey stone where the thrush knocks" '
AR has scored through the 're' of 'where' and written in ink in the margin the letter n. [Tolkien knew about this error and wrote to G.E. Selby on December 14, 1937, “Where for when p. 64 is just an error, and I will correct it, gratefully.”]
Ch 6, p104: ' over the back tops of those growing lower down'
AR has inserted a ^ in back (b^ack) and written the lower case italic letter l with a ^ under it in the margin in ink.
Ch 11, p210: ' It's bank was bare and rocky, tall and steep above stream '
AR inserts a ' ^ ' between above and stream, and in the margin writes in ink: ' the ' with a ' ^ ' under it.
I think I wrote this down accurately, if so, he let the apostrophe in ' It's ' get away! [AR seems to have been quite disciplined in his markup. He had not bothered with typos during his reading and he marked only those which Tolkien identified.]
Ch 11, 9 216: ' It is always poor me that has to get them out of difficulties, at leas since the wizard left.'
AR inserts a sort of ' h ' or extended ' ^ ' after ' leas ' and writes in ink in the margin ' t ' and this sign again.
And Ch 13, p 248 ' "and so I suppose it is more or less breakfast-time - if there is nay breakfast to have."
AR draws a curvy line in front of the n in ' nay ', over the top, between n and a and up between a and y. He simply repeats this shape in the margin. Both in ink.
I found it very significant that there were marks in both pencil and in ink. AR’s own suggestion showed only in pencil, while the ink marks seemed to be Tolkien’s corrections. The only problem was that there did not seem to be a mark for AR’s second suggested edit, on page 294. That seemed curious to me and so — in spite of the greatest respect for the skills of my volunteer researcher — I proceeded to beg the museum if someone could double-check just that_one_last_page. Graciously, the keeper did go and check that page for me. She found that AR had lightly marked, in pencil, his suggestion:
The word before 'of' and after the '?' is hard to make out but looks
like 'fola.'
Applying my inference from a distance, I would imagine that what looks like “fola” is most likely AR’s extended caret preceding his scribble for “all.”
That's it. I have no idea whether any of you are interested, but I've received so much help from TarBoarders and TARS members that I thought it was the least I could do to share my report.
Thank you, all!
This post has been extracted from the Tarboard archive of lapsed messages as it is referenced in The History of The Hobbit by John D. Rateliff.
All followups have been removed