TOLKIEN (J.R.R.) Autograph letter signed ('Ronald Tolkien') to 'My dear Ladies', sending them two signed copies of Verses '...I hope for your enjoyment, and in any case as a memento of our meetings...', and apologising for the delay in so doing since their return from '...the ease of the Belmont...', commenting that the weather has been good '...in this favoured corner of England...' until today: ' ...the weather has only just turned bad...in sunshine, immune from storms... at 4 a.m. a Noachic rain began and is still going on non-stop (8 p.m.). One does not read of the great play-cycles of biblical episodes, that used to be performed on Corpus Christi in the open being 'washed out'... It may have made the play of Noah more realistic...', ending by sending best wishes from himself and his wife; with a note at end 'please mark any reply Personal...', one page, dust-staining, creased particularly at head, 4to (215 x 155mm.), c/o George Allen & Unwin, London, 'Corpus Christi [10 June] 1971' Footnotes: 'NOACHIC RAIN': TOLKIEN REFLECTS ON MEDIAEVAL MYSTERY PLAYS AND THE BRITISH WEATHER. Tolkien and his wife had spent a week in May at the Belmont Hotel in Sidmouth (Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (eds), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, 2006, pp.753-4) and commented on the fine weather there in a letter to his son Christopher on 2 June: 'Our brief holiday to Sidmouth, which was what Dr Tolhurst's advice boiled down to, was very pleasant indeed. We were lucky in our time - in fact the only week available at the hotel - since May was such a wonderful month - and we came in for a 'spring explosion' of glory' (Letters, p.323). The 'Verses' sent with the letter were copies of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book, published by Allen & Unwin in 1962. The passage describing 'Noachic rain' from our letter is published in Humphrey Carpenter (ed.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1981, where the recipient is named as Phyllis Robertson (no.324a, p.576), although this letter is addressed to two 'Ladies'. The form of signature used here - 'Ronald' as opposed to 'J.R.R.' Tolkien - is rare and was used for friends only; in 1963 he wrote to his publishers, who proposed reproducing the 'Ronald' signature in facsimile, 'I do not and never have used the signature 'Ronald Tolkien' as an auctorial signature, and I do not think it suitable for this purpose' (3 February 1964, to Ronald Eames, Tolkien Companion, p.616). Provenance: Bonhams, 19 March 2013, lot 186. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing