tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post8298749037708810365..comments2024-03-28T14:05:25.134-07:00Comments on Sacnoth's Scriptorium: Did Tolkien Read Steinbeck?John D. Rateliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12324926298336489295noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-85669480087255938072018-05-06T06:31:40.103-07:002018-05-06T06:31:40.103-07:00In reply to the comment that "Which in turn m...In reply to the comment that "Which in turn made us wonder how much Twain Tolkien had actually read when he spoke with Kilby, as opposed to having enough familiarity through other avenues to carry on a casual conversation" - what about this letter: https://www.sethkaller.com/item/1195-23221-J.R.R.-Tolkien-Writes-his-Proofreader-with-a-Lengthy-Discussion-of-the-Lord-of-the-Rings,-Including-Criticism-of-Radio-Broadcasts-of-his-Work in which Tolkien compares Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court to Naomi Mitchison's The Chapel Perilous?hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02913521800609168507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-50731213350623745942010-06-28T05:41:54.781-07:002010-06-28T05:41:54.781-07:00We knew about C.E.M. Joad in another context, but ...We knew about C.E.M. Joad in another context, but not about his altercation with railway officials. A writer is limited by his own knowledge, of course – his "personal cognitive event horizon" as an article in the <em>New York Times</em> last week put it – and can't always know that there’s something he doesn't know. One reason the <em>Companion and Guide</em> took so long to write is that we often did realize that we needed to know more about something and had to do further research. It would have been an even longer time except that we come from different backgrounds and to a degree check each other by looking at things from different angles. When we woke on Monday the 21st, for instance, Wayne remarked that it was the first day of summer, because it was the solstice (an especially American demarcation), while Christina (an English opera buff) said that from her point of view it was three days before Midsummer, the Feast of John the Baptist on the 24th, which she associates with Wagner's <em>Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg</em>.<br /><br />Similarly, Wayne has read Mark Twain, whose books were required in American schools, while Christina's knowledge of them from an English upbringing is second-hand; and talking about this, we agreed that although neither of us has read a word of, say, G.A. Henty, we both recognize titles such as <em>With Clive in India</em> as typical of his works, and we've read enough about British children’s literature to know what kind of books Henty produced. Which in turn made us wonder how much Twain Tolkien had actually read when he spoke with Kilby, as opposed to having enough familiarity through other avenues to carry on a casual conversation. Twain's celebrity in England, in any case, is surely no more relevant to whether Tolkien read <em>Tom Sawyer</em> or <em>Huckleberry Finn</em> – or even "The Awful German Language" from <em>A Tramp Abroad</em>, which at least was in his field – than John Grisham's in America is to whether either of us has read his thrillers (we haven't).<br /><br />From Kilby's comment, it does seem that Tolkien read some of the "Father Brown" stories, though it's possible to dislike something (or decide that one would dislike it) by only sampling it; and although from Tolkien's remarks about <em>Smith of Wootton Major</em> it does seem that he read some early Wodehouse, this is problematic as none of Wodehouse's early titles compare with Tolkien's closely: that he wrote about "Psmith" is hardly enough to prove a connection with "Smith", and has no connection with "Wootton Major". Tolkien may have had in mind another author altogether, or (as he says) the <em>Boy's Own Paper</em>.<br /><br />We reported his "Woodhouse" comment in our essay on <em>Smith of Wootton Major</em>, but tried to restrict our coverage in "Reading" to works and authors for which there was a certain strength of evidence. By this token, the Steinbeck citation never should have appeared, and did so only because we had made the wrong "little Joad" identification already in our index to Tolkien's <em>Letters</em> (likewise corrected in Addenda and Corrigenda).Wayne and Christinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932900001011949062noreply@blogger.com