Tolkien was a very prolific letter writer even though he often found it a chore. I suspect JRRt's letter collection significantly exceeds C S Lewis partly because JRRT lived longer and because words poured out of him at increasingly fast speed as the years sped by akin to the great Charles Dickens (and Tolkien would often revise the letter into something much much longer and then not send it!).
Tolkien found letter writing a chore in his twilight years as the sands of time were pouring down and his greatest work remained unpublished,the Quenta Silmarillion. Letters would sometimes express his fear that their was not enough time to finish The Silmarillion and many letters apologising for his tawdry response. But the younger Tolkien would often respond,sometimes at length,to 'fans'.............secretary or no secretary.
I suspect that the number of significant Tolkien letters waiting to see the light of day,far exceed 10,000.
The Expanded and Revised Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: A First Look Dr. Holly Ordway
https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/th ... jrr-tolkien-a-first-look/
Trotter wrote:
The Expanded and Revised Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: A First Look Dr. Holly Ordway
https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/th ... jrr-tolkien-a-first-look/
As one would expect from Holly Ordway, an excellent review. And very kind of her to name check us a number of times including the Guide and the very helpful overview of new letters.
Thanks Holly.
Review by Christian Kriticos for winteriscoming.net (with another call-out to TCG):
https://winteriscoming.net/2023/11/14/ ... sed-and-expanded-edition/
https://winteriscoming.net/2023/11/14/ ... sed-and-expanded-edition/
It appears that the HarperCollins ones are now out of stock on most online bookshops. Would that be out of the ordinary ? Are they already on the second printing ?
Amazon UK still shows "In Stock" for this. I haven't heard (yet) of any supply issues, but that might take some time to really notice - anything this close to release date could just as easily be stock shuffling arounnd between warehouses to meet demand.