Discuss Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Edith Bratt on 8 August 1914

onthetrail wrote:

Letter link: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Edith Bratt • 8 August 1914 (#1119)

Many thanks to ThoughtsonTolkien over on Twitter for posting a link to this interesting remembrance of Fr. Vincent Reade who joined Tolkien on a walk in Cornwall.

https://www.birminghamoratory.org.uk/vincent-reade/

This was me (ThoughtsonTolkien). Thanks for sharing and for adding the link to the letter. I did not do extensive research but did several quick searches trying to find more information on Fr. Reade but there does not appear to be much out there (at least readily available). The information provided by Hammond and Scull indicates Tolkien spent about 2 weeks with Fr. Reade in Cornwall and stayed at Fr. Reade's mother's house. During the trip, England declared war on Germany - the sort of thing that tends to leave a mark in one's memory, especially when one later enters service in that same war. Pure speculation but I would guess that either they must have been fairly good friends to go on a two-week trip together staying at Fr. Reade's mother's house, or if not, then after two weeks they may have become close friends. Perhaps this trip was an inspiration for Tolkien's later trip to Cornwall with his family.

Other than the memorial tribute linked above, the only other thing of interest I found on Fr. Reade was a book called Homage to Newman. The Internet Archive has the book open access here (I also note that if you search the book on Amazon, Amazon states that the book is in the public domain). The book is a collection of essays in tribute to Newman on the 100th anniversary of his conversion to Catholicism. In the book, Reade contributed a 2-page essay titled: "The Spirituality of Cardinal Newman." Photos of the table and contents and essay are below. After a quick read, the essay seems to mainly be a succinct summary of one aspect of Newman's conversion, what one might call the "character" or "feel" of his conversion. Although I have only read a few of Newman's voluminous writings and am no Newman expert, I would venture to say this is a fairly anodyne essay. Nothing is particularly notable or interesting, other than to note with hindsight that Reade comments on the likelihood of Newman becoming a saint ("raised to the altar") as a "premature" discussion. Nearly 80 years later in 2023, we can note that Newman was canonized recently in 2019, with the then-Prince Charles in attendance.

Thank you Tuor, this is very interesting and even minor info about the people Tolkien mixed with is in my opinion great info to explore further.

In Letter Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Edith Bratt • 29 November 1914 (#141) Tolkien mentions Fr. Vincent though in what context is not known within the guide currently. Carpenter only mentions him in relation to that holiday in the summer of 1914 (Biography, pp. 100-1).
Reade was also in attendance at Birmingham Oratory functions that the Tolkien’s were at, ?end of July 1933, p. 181 and 1934, p. 187 Reader's Guide: Chronology.
A very interesting entry in Hammond and Scull's Readers Guide part 2, p. 1005, comes from Christopher Tolkien who remembers Reade visiting his father in Oxford just before the outbreak of WW2. Reade had been in Germany and described the anti-semitism in Nazi Germany. And they have a short entry for Reade later in that volume, p. 1052.
Tolkien describes their walks, published in Biography, p. 71.
A really interesting reference to Reade comes in Carpenter #66: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Christopher Tolkien • 6 May 1944 (#100) where Tolkien says that he would complain to "poor old Fr. Vincent" when writing to him. I assume this was during the first world war, of which we have no letters even mentioned so far, yet with this comment re. Christopher's own "grousing" we know that Tolkien wrote to Reade and I imagine these letters were deeply personal.

That is all the information I have compiled so far but no doubt there will be more tidbits to extract and gather into one of the letters that mention Reade.

From my archive

PRIEST’S £25,063 ESTATE
The Rev. Francis Xavier Morgan, of Oratory, Edgbaston, Birmingham, a member of the Oratorian community for 58 years, left £25,063 (net £24,900). Probate of the will, dated 15 August, 1933, has been granted to the Rev. Francis Vincent Reade, Provost of the Oratory, Edgbaston. The testator left all his property to the Rev. F. V. Reade absolutely.
Birmingham Gazette, Wednesday, 28 August, 1935, p. 8.

Tolkieniano wrote:

From my archive

PRIEST’S £25,063 ESTATE
The Rev. Francis Xavier Morgan, of Oratory, Edgbaston, Birmingham, a member of the Oratorian community for 58 years, left £25,063 (net £24,900). Probate of the will, dated 15 August, 1933, has been granted to the Rev. Francis Vincent Reade, Provost of the Oratory, Edgbaston. The testator left all his property to the Rev. F. V. Reade absolutely.
Birmingham Gazette, Wednesday, 28 August, 1935, p. 8.

Thank you Oronzo. Much appreciated. We need a museum tour of your archive at some time

onthetrail wrote:

Thank you Tuor, this is very interesting and even minor info about the people Tolkien mixed with is in my opinion great info to explore further.

In Letter Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Edith Bratt • 29 November 1914 (#141) Tolkien mentions Fr. Vincent though in what context is not known within the guide currently. Carpenter only mentions him in relation to that holiday in the summer of 1914 (Biography, pp. 100-1).
Reade was also in attendance at Birmingham Oratory functions that the Tolkien’s were at, ?end of July 1933, p. 181 and 1934, p. 187 Reader's Guide: Chronology.
A very interesting entry in Hammond and Scull's Readers Guide part 2, p. 1005, comes from Christopher Tolkien who remembers Reade visiting his father in Oxford just before the outbreak of WW2. Reade had been in Germany and described the anti-semitism in Nazi Germany. And they have a short entry for Reade later in that volume, p. 1052.
Tolkien describes their walks, published in Biography, p. 71.
A really interesting reference to Reade comes in Carpenter #66: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Christopher Tolkien • 6 May 1944 (#100) where Tolkien says that he would complain to "poor old Fr. Vincent" when writing to him. I assume this was during the first world war, of which we have no letters even mentioned so far, yet with this comment re. Christopher's own "grousing" we know that Tolkien wrote to Reade and I imagine these letters were deeply personal.

That is all the information I have compiled so far but no doubt there will be more tidbits to extract and gather into one of the letters that mention Reade.

Thanks. Now that you mention some of the references I recalled one or two but it's nice to have them all in one place. Assuming Reade retained some or all of his received correspondence, it's possible the Birmingham Oratory may now hold that correspondence. Given that the Oratory has its own museum (dedicated to Newman) and understands how to retain and care for historic documents, I would think any correspondence it inherited or possessed would have been preserved and/or archived. Perhaps Holly Ordway has seen some of it during her research for Tolkien's Faith. (and thanks, Oronzo, for sharing from your archive!)

Tuor son of Huor wrote:

Assuming Reade retained some or all of his received correspondence, it's possible the Birmingham Oratory may now hold that correspondence. Given that the Oratory has its own museum (dedicated to Newman) and understands how to retain and care for historic documents, I would think any correspondence it inherited or possessed would have been preserved and/or archived. Perhaps Holly Ordway has seen some of it during her research for Tolkien's Faith.

That is an excellent suggestion. Thank you. I will reach to Holly Ordway on this.

Just dropping a note for folks’ future reference that Holly Ordway includes a brief biography of Fr. Vincent Reade and his connection to Tolkien on pp. 64-65 of Tolkien’s Faith. Reade is also mentioned on p. 218 and p. 230. All page numbers are from the hardcover first edition.

Tuor son of Huor wrote:

Just dropping a note for folks’ future reference that Holly Ordway includes a brief biography of Fr. Vincent Reade and his connection to Tolkien on pp. 64-65 of Tolkien’s Faith. Reade is also mentioned on p. 218 and p. 230. All page numbers are from the hardcover first edition.

Thanks Tuor, much appreciated. I am a little behind as my hardcover is in transit still and not arriving for another week at least. I will add this note to the Guide, thank you.