Avast, all ye Tolkien readers! Here is a preview of the opening chunk of the expanded edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters, with contents up into 1944.
Not only are there newly-published letters interweaved into the existing ones (numbered, e.g. 8a, so as not to disturb the existing numbers), but there's newly added material to existing letters. And, though the notes are not included in the except, it is clear from the numbering that there are some new notes to existing material.
Lots of interesting stuff in here. Thrill to Tolkien telling his publisher in September 1939 that The Lord of the Rings is about 3/4 written! Considering that at this time he was finally, after repeated traversals, ironing out Book I, the journey as far as Rivendell, one shudders at what he thought at this time the remaining quarter of the story would be like.
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