The team taking apart one of Tolkien’s homes found a postcard in the fireplace. Reporter Mike Collett-White writes:
The postcard was addressed to Tolkien at the Miramar Hotel in Bournemouth, where he and his wife Edith often stayed. [It is dated 1968.]
It is from “Lin,” which Malton [the demolition man] believed could be fellow fantasy author Lin Carter who wrote Tolkien: A Look Behind ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ published in 1969.
Depicting a scene from Ireland, it reads: “I have been thinking of you a lot and hope everything has gone as well as could be expected in the most difficult circumstances.”
The circumstances in question are not described in this report.
You know, I think this would be more significant if it had been a postcard from Tolkien. A postcard from Lin Carter doesn’t impress me much, no matter who it was addressed to.
And yet, the man thinks it and the fireplace could sell for several thousand pounds. The figure is in the article.
Well, I know I’d pay several thousand pounds for Tolkien’s fireplace. I mean, that’s different.
Not pounds sterling, of course. Pounds of gravel or something. But pounds.
I have two letters from Lin Carter. It was nice of him to reply to me when I wrote him in connectionwith his anthology New Worlds for Old.
But I’d take the Tolkien fireplace in trade for them.