July 29th 1977: The Café Royal (R.S.V.P. Rayner Unwin)

In the mid-1980s Rayner Unwin arranged for Christina Scull and Charles Noad to view GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN's (GA&U) ‘Tolkien-related press cuttings’ collection, held, then (c.1985), in a GA&U warehouse in Hemel Hempstead. Details of the visit are described in Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull's Visiting Tolkien's Publishers (2017) weblog write-up here. 

The original collection held by GA&U was later ‘evidently discarded’; the copies made by Scull and Noad are now all that remain to tell us what that original collection of material, curated by Tolkien's publishers, looked like. Christina Scull still has her set of copies; both her and Wayne describe having ‘made great use’ of them over the years in respect to their own writing and publishing. Scull later added some of the copied material into personal scrapbooks. Of course, much of the material, like press-cuttings, could probably still be tracked down today; however, some of the collection would appear to be unique and is unlikely to be encountered elsewhere.

On a few occasions Charles Noad quoted to me from his copies of this ‘publisher's archive’ material, particularly in reference to The Silmarillion; I'm sure there was a wealth of other information besides, but my narrow interest (and questions) probably precluded a broader discussion of material covering Tolkien more widely. It's evident that the collection contained more than just externally produced material like press cuttings, it also contained some letters, ‘internal memos’, and the like. All of this correspondence, in its original form (if that matters), is now entirely lost.

In a specific discussion regarding publication of The Silmarillion—and Christopher Tolkien's whereabouts around this time—Noad dug up the following:

Elsewhere it is said that he would be attending a buffet lunch for approx. 30 Literary Editors at that time. A later report in The Bookseller for 13th August states that ‘Allen & Unwin held a literary lunch at the Cafe Royal on Friday 29th July for Christopher Tolkien, editor of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Silmarillion".’ An accompanying photo shows Christopher with John Ezard of the Guardian and Terry Ryle of the Daily Express. 

I'm not sure if Christopher Tolkien knew John Ezard (1939–2010). Ezard, who by 1977 was evidently already working for THE GUARDIAN (profile), had famously interviewed Tolkien in 1966 when working for the OXFORD MAIL, extracts of which were published as Writers Talking 1: The Hobbit Man (Descriptive Bibliography, Fii, p. 385). Ezard gave another, later account of this interview in the 1991 article Tolkien's Shire, available to read online here. Terry Ryle, who was (maybe) Assistant Features Editor (he can't recall) at the time—the Literary Editor was Peter Grosvenor—was ‘keen to meet Christopher’ but recalls that ‘there was little time for conversation and certainly not an interview’ (private correspondence with author).

In a previous post (Ex Libris Richard Adams) I suggested that ‘perhaps as many as 50–60’ review copies of The Silmarillion were ‘distributed to UK literary editors in late July’. I based this comment, in part, on the evidence given by Noad (quoted above), but also on information derived from the original Café Royal invite itself. A copy of this—possibly a printer's proof, but perhaps simply the publisher's file copy—has survived; a remarkable piece of ephemera for the collector, but also, perhaps more importantly, a fascinating piece of publishing history.

The invite tells us that review copies had just become available; it's implied these were some of the first. The invite is obviously un-dated, but one would assume it was sent no later than the beginning of the week, and possibly drafted the week before i.e. week commencing 18th July. Despite the scheduling of Christopher Tolkien's activity being organised by GA&U at this time, it wasn't necessarily a given that the availability of review copies would ‘happily’ coincide, as it did, with Christopher's brief visit; further archival information—shared by Noad—states that he was only in England for a few days.

He would also squeeze in an interview with Bill Cater, of THE SUNDAY TIMES, at GA&U's Museum Street offices; Cater would publish The Filial Duty of Christopher Tolkien (The Sunday Times Magazine, 25th September 1977) based on this interview. Cater was the author of several articles on Tolkien, interviewing him (like Ezard) in 1966; see Scull & Hammond's The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide: Chronology (HarperCollins, 2006, p. 671) for further detail.

I suggest these ‘early’ review copies were perhaps some of the first complete copies of The Silmarillion made available to the publisher. I don't know if Cater attended the buffet lunch on July 29th—probably not given the one-to-one interview access—but think it highly likely that he, too, in his capacity as a representative of THE SUNDAY TIMES, was given a review copy (or copies) at this time.

Of the several review copies of The Silmarillion that I have, most are standard 1977 copies with loose GA&U (or HMCO) review slips laid in. One review copy (S.114), however, is slightly different, having a ‘With the Compliments of THE SUNDAY TIMES’ slip attached to the front pastedown; presumably given by THE SUNDAY TIMES (possibly via Cater) to an outside reader/reviewer.

There's no particular reason to think this was Cater's own copy—assuming he was given one (and read it)—however it's possible it could be the review copy given to Woodrow Wyatt. Wyatt's review of The Silmarillion for THE SUNDAY TIMES, published as The Myth According to Tolkien, was respectfully ‘antipathetic’. He clearly understood the fascination in Tolkien's work(s), while not personally enjoying his writing; ‘he sounds primeval chords which I can hear only faintly, if at all’. The copy is otherwise unremarkable, with no other markings or points of particular interest.

It should be noted that this SUNDAY TIMES review copy (S.114) is a standard BILLING & SONS printed copy. My working hypothesis is that all copies distributed by GA&U at The Café Royal lunch in late July were likely BILLING & SONS copies. This perhaps raises some doubts over the seemingly unshakeable claim that all “true first” WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS printed first impression variant(s) have priority of printing over (all) BILLING & SONS printed variant(s). I think mid- to late-July seems reasonably early in the printing-publishing timeline of The Silmarillion, taking into account printing of the edition didn't begin until early May (Hammond & Anderson). The Silmarillion was published on 15th September 1977.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to thank the owner of the original Café Royal invite for allowing me to share and discuss these images.