TCG Letter #1979

GA&U send a copy of The Hobbit to Elaine Griffiths. Elaine was a family friend, and recalls reading the story from a "beautifully typed copy".^{Ann Bonsor radio interview[1]}

It is assumed that with any manuscript/proofs or copies of books sent that a cover letter or note would also be enclosed. We unfortunately do not currently have an example of those cover notes.

It was Elaine Griffiths who had suggested that Susan Dagnall of GA&U read The Hobbit when it was in the form of a typescipt.

Griffiths would later recall that "When I was a young graduate, Professor Tolkien lent me his = not manuscript, but beautifully typed copy of The Hobbit. He had a fascinating typewriter with an italic script, and I thought it was wonderful and read it with enormous pleasure. And quite a time afterwards, somebody I had known when she was an undergraduate who was working for Allen & Unwin, came to me and wanted something, I’ve forgotten what, and I said, “Oh Susan, I don’t know it or can’t get it, but I’ll tell you something, go along to Professor Tolkien and see if you can get out of him a work called The Hobbit, as I think it’s frightfully good."^{The Annotated Hobbit. Revised Edition[2]}