Discuss Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to William E. Ratliff on 25 August 1967

Yesterday I had the chance to swing by the Hoover Institute archives at Stanford University, where I had a reservation to see a particular file we had come across recently. William Ratliff was an archivist for the Institute, and a prolific journalist mostly working on international affairs and election coverage around the world - but, in the mid 1960s, he came across Tolkien's fiction and wrote him a letter. ^{Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to William E. Ratliff • 1 February 1966 (#2344)[1]} About a year later, he wrote this letter ^{Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to William E. Ratliff • 25 August 1967 (#2345)[2]} - likely on the topic of a forthcoming article he would be publishing - "The Hobbit and the Hippie" (Modern Age, Spring 1968).

In the first letter (1 Feb 1966) Tolkien is polite to Ratliff, but he is very upset having just seen the Barbara Remington artwork for The Lord of the Rings (Ballantine, USA) which he absolutely hates. In the second letter, he refuses to engage on the topic Ratliff has enquired about, and goes on to say that he can only write what he likes for himself, and he cannot control what other people decide to think or do with those writings.

I hope to be get permission to quote from these short, interesting letters - Tolkien has a way with words!