Saturday, September 22, 2012

Tolkien's Last Letter, Bilbo Baggins' Birthday & the Hobbit's 75th Anniversary

This is an excerpt from a post on an excellent blog I read fairly regularly (my emphases in bold):

Today is Bilbo Baggins’s Birthday and yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit.
I found an image of the edition that I first read.
I first read The Hobbit when I was in 7th grade.  I have a clear memory of sneaking some pages during a wood-shop class.   The following summer, having read everything else I could get my hands on and longing intensely for The Silmarillion, I wrote to The Professor at the urging of my grandmother (the one who had given me sets of lp records of Shakespeare plays).  The professor wrote back.   I received his letter, an aerogramme, in September 1973, some days after he had died.  In his letter he wrote that he had to be brief because people were waiting for him in the car.  He went to Bournemouth and he died that same day.  I may have the last thing he ever wrote.

Tolkien’s books were one of those pivotal forces which veered me into a life changing path.

...
Could you imagine having the last thing J.R.R Tolkien wrote in his lifetime?  Reading The Hobbit and Tolkien's books was also "one of those pivotal forces which veered me into a life changing path" for me.  I think the beauty of Tolkien's writings impact people on a much greater level then simply fictional entertainment.

But the last thing Tolkien ever wrote ... Wow!

Read the entire post at his blog, Some reflections on a life changing book.

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