Here is the link to the archive posted at the Multiply Site:
tolkiensring.multiply.com/journal/item/70/Tolkien-Manuscript-Archive-Gathering-at-Marquette-UniversityNot sure if you can access it if you didn't sign up for that site so here are the comments:
We had a wonderful time! Galenas is a very gracious hostess and a wonderful co-pilot in navigating us around Milwaukee. We had about an hour or so before we went to Marquette to get to know each other and talk Tolkien. Galenas showed us her Tolkien Shrine with all the swords and rings she has been collecting. And, of course, we saw her infamous Gollum statue! He is much more impressive in person! Then we headed out to Marquette University.
I have to say that I was awestruck seeing the actual pages of manuscript in Professor Tolkien's own caligraphic-type style. There were so many wonderful pages that Matt Blessing, the Marquette archivist, showed us. We were not allowed to take pictures of these but Krysha did take a few shots of Galenas and I sitting at the table with Matt Blessing. Matt was a very nice gentleman. He brought out the archive boxes for only a small portion of what Marquette has but it is well worth anyone's time to go take a look at this collection. He explained things as he went through the collection showing us the transcripts.
· We saw three of the first transcripts of "The Long-Expected Party" with the strike outs and rewritten changes.
· There was an actual watercolor and ink drawing done by JRRT that went on the cover of the first Hobbit edition.
· There was the chronology of the events of the Ring and Fellowship.
· Side-by-side columns of what action was taking place with which characters after the Fellowship broke up.
· We saw the Field Reports that JRRT had while in the service with the notes he made on the backs of them.
· There was a hobbit measurement chart indicating that three toenails equalled one toe and six toes equalled a foot, etc.
· We saw a letter he had written to a woman who had written to him.
· There were pages from Balin's logbook from Moria that Tolkien made to look singed at the edges and crumbling.
· There were maps he had drawn that appear in the published works....slightly different in appearance because he was still editing. One map had the compass drawn with snowflakes for North, the Sun for the South (and I forget what East and West were).
I am sure I am forgetting something! Krysha and Galenas please add anything you remember that I have forgotten!
The manuscripts were written in ink and pencil and there are some corrections and additions in red. Tolkien has a very calligraphic-like handwriting and he could write very small. It was amazing seeing all of these treasures. I highly recommend that you see these if you are out this way.
After the archives, we headed to the theater and watched the ROTK together. We missed the Sméagol/Déagol scene but we had seen the movie already and the next showing was not until 4 hours later and we did not want to wait until then!
I have Krysha's camera at my house. She left it in my vehicle when I dropped her off. I would have loaded the pictures to my pc, but her camera does not use 3 1/2 floppies (probably a memory stick) so she will have to load it to her pc. She will get the camera back tomorrow at work (we work together) and then we can load the pictures to this thread and/or a photo album.
Stormrider
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wrote on Jan 19, '04
I was most blown away by the detail of the time line. Now remember there were no computers in those days. JRRT had pages of columns for each character with dates and times to the left. In this way he could keep track of where Frodo was when Merry was swearing fealty to Theoden (for example). He even had in the margins how long it would take for Sam and Frodo to walk from point A to point B, providing they did so many kilometers daily. Same with a rider on horseback.
I especially liked seeing the chronology of the dates....right out of the appendices....written out in that wonderful Tolkien font . That 'font' actually IS his handwriting!
And the watercolor of the Lonely Mountain with Smaug! Just wonderful....and very small....the original, with all that detail was only about 7 x 10 inches or so.
And one factoid....JRRT is the bestest selling author ON THE PLANET IN ALL OF HISTORY, with 300,000,000 copies of his books having been. The movie didn't put that much of a dent in his record either!
The archivist was very gracious and knowledgeable. What a treat to have him all to ourselves for about an hour.
Galenas
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According to Matt Blessing, Richard E. Blackwelder, who was newly hired (sometime in the 1950's--that was), had just read the Hobbit and LOTR. He was the one who suggested they contact Tolkien to see if he would sell any of his manuscripts. Blackwelder thought it would be a very wise investment.
At this time, Tolkien was thinking of retiring and because of his meager professor's salary and his pension that would only be about half his salary (with a widow's pension being only a quarter!), Tolkien agreed to sell the manuscripts! Of course, what he did sell was a just small portion of it all.
As a matter of fact, the letter written to the woman that I mentioned above was sold to Marquette for more than the original acquisition was purchased for in the 1950's!
The conference that is being held this October is in Blackwelder's honor, by the way!
Stormrider
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OK - here's my two cents worth. Galenas is, without a doubt, the most gracious person I have met in the last 20 years, and I herewith publicly thank her for her incredible hospitality. She even went so far as to decorate a lovely cheesecake with the writings from the One Ring, and that's not an easy task!
Tolkien's handwriting is incredible. It was fun to see the use of a fountain pen in the hand of someone who was obviously trained in the art of writing - do you all remember those Cursive writing classes? I certainly do! In some cases his writing was incredibly small - I would venture to say that some of his notes were written in a script that would measure no greater than 1/8" from top to bottom (this after pulling out my ruler from my desk drawer). His writing was effusive and lovely, but then we are all so used to seeing typewritten or word-processed pages that to see a hand-written anything is almost an artifact these days.
The Archive has received more manuscripts from Christopher in the last few years, but they are waiting for the development of new digital technology to archive them correctly. I gathered from Matt Blessing that one thing they hope to glean from them is the workings of Tolkien's mind through his re-writes. Some scholars have gone so far as to try to determine which typewriter was used for some of the typewritten pages, as Tolkien's own typewriter failed and they had to borrow one, so it would help determine the timeline for when certain corrections/changes were made to his storyline.
It was incredibly fascinating to consider the work the archivists do in assembling all these manuscripts, which are frequently in the form of notes written on the back of shopping lists, or "to do" lists, or on the back of pages from a desk calendar (which at least helps them to date them) and assemble them in some type of order. It's reconstructing the thoughts of Tolkien himself, and I certainly picked up on Matt Blessing's near veneration for this kind of work. Tolkien's work represents only a small portion of the archives at Marquette, yet each represents a key to unlocking the thought processes of the author and it's like stepping into the persona of the writer. He showed us a piece of Tolkien's artwork that graced the cover of The Hobbit, and he said he could image Tolkien, as he was drawing it, taking a book down from his bookshelf and wrapping the drawing around it to see how it would serve as the dustcover. That just blew me away, because you just know that's exactly what he did.
To see this man's work in his own hand is awesome, and Stormy, Galenas and I all agreed that writing by hand inspires one to greater thinking than pounding away on some keyboard, and it lends an intimacy to that which is written.
I have more to add, but this post is already too long. Just want to wind up by thanking Galenas once again for her incredible hospitality, thanking Stormy for initiating this trek and for serving as chauffer in what could have been a nasty drive but turned out okay, and thanking Matt Blessing for his graciousness in spending his time on a Saturday afternoon to share these wonderful manuscripts with three avid Tolkien fans.
Kryshaepona