Details
TOLKIEN, J.R.R. Typed letter signed ('R') to 'My dearest Aunt' [Mrs Edwin Neave], 76 Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford, 22 November 1961, two pages, 4°; together with a typed copy of his poem 'Princess Mee'.
TOLKIEN'S MANIFESTO ON WRITING FOR CHILDREN, AND AN ADMISSION OF HIS OWN 'CHILDISHNESS'. 'Never mind about the young! I am not interested in the "child" as such, modern or otherwise, and certainly have no intention of meeting him/her half way'; he has made such a mistake only once, in the early part of The Hobbit. A lecture he gave on fairy stories at St Andrews consolidated his views, with results 'entirely beneficial to the Lord of the Rings ... It was not written "for children", or for any kind of person in particular, but for itself. (If any parts or elements in it appear "childish", it is because I am childish...)'. Tolkien discusses his use of words such as 'plenilune' and 'argent' -- 'beautiful words before they are understood' -- asserting that 'Children are not a class or kind, they are a heterogeneous collection of immature persons', and that to condescend to their tastes is always a mistake, advancing examples of the inscrutability of childish enjoyment; 'I was of course given Hans Andersen when quite young. At one time I listened with attention which may have looked like rapture to his stories ... I read them myself often. Actually I disliked him intensely', and ending with the firm assertion that 'I write as I do, ill or well, because I cannot write otherwise'.
TOLKIEN'S MANIFESTO ON WRITING FOR CHILDREN, AND AN ADMISSION OF HIS OWN 'CHILDISHNESS'. 'Never mind about the young! I am not interested in the "child" as such, modern or otherwise, and certainly have no intention of meeting him/her half way'; he has made such a mistake only once, in the early part of The Hobbit. A lecture he gave on fairy stories at St Andrews consolidated his views, with results 'entirely beneficial to the Lord of the Rings ... It was not written "for children", or for any kind of person in particular, but for itself. (If any parts or elements in it appear "childish", it is because I am childish...)'. Tolkien discusses his use of words such as 'plenilune' and 'argent' -- 'beautiful words before they are understood' -- asserting that 'Children are not a class or kind, they are a heterogeneous collection of immature persons', and that to condescend to their tastes is always a mistake, advancing examples of the inscrutability of childish enjoyment; 'I was of course given Hans Andersen when quite young. At one time I listened with attention which may have looked like rapture to his stories ... I read them myself often. Actually I disliked him intensely', and ending with the firm assertion that 'I write as I do, ill or well, because I cannot write otherwise'.
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