1966. A typed note signed by Tolkien, written to his publishers at Houghton Mifflin, thanking them for a Christmas present, "which has already afforded my wife and myself great amusement." Signed, "J.R.R. Tolkien." 5 3/8" x 7". Publisher's notations in the top margin and on verso; fine. Together with a signed postcard to Houghton Mifflin from W.H. Auden, also from 1966, thanking them for sending the revised edition of Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings and informing them that there is still a discrepancy in Samwise's (here written as "Sam Hamwise's" [?]) birthday across Appendix B and the Family Tree. Someone has clarified Auden's handwriting in pencil, making "birthday" legible. The known (and much debated on the internet) discrepancy is actually in the birth year rather than the birthday; the card is fine. The pairing of communications has an interesting backstory: Auden was reportedly a big fan of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and in 1966 had agreed to do a book called J.R.R. Tolkien in Christian Perspective for a religious publisher, Eerdman's. Tolkien, when he heard of it, was incensed, calling it a "premature impertinence" and advising the publisher that he would have no part in such a thing, that he and Auden had no significant relationship, and that a talk Auden had given to the Tolkien Society "showed him to be entirely mistaken about my views on the topics he touched on." Needless to say, the proposed book never happened; Tolkien was desperately trying to finish writing The Silmarillion, something he was unable to do before he died in 1973; it was published posthumously in 1977. A glimpse at an unusual case of literary fandom: it has been said that Auden's enthusiasm for Tolkien's writing helped give it credibility and a respectability early on that it might not otherwise have had, but Tolkien -- fandom notwithstanding -- saw Auden as having missed the point entirely and, equally, having overstepped his bounds. [#036737] $12,500