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Books, letters and personal notes documenting a decadeslong friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien and a hearing-impaired fan sold for a combined $138,890 at auction in London.
The archive, tied to the author of "The Lord of the Rings," traces his correspondence with Eileen Elgar, who died in 1980.
Elgar lived near the Hotel Miramar in Bournemouth, where Tolkien and his wife spent their holidays each year.
She wrote to the author, who lived in Oxford at the time, in the 1960s, and the exchange grew into a friendship that continued for years.
The sale, held at Sotheby's in London, included dozens of items produced between 1961 and 1964, spanning inscribed books, handwritten letters and personal notes exchanged between the two.
Among the highlights were a letter in which Tolkien discussed the death of fellow author C.S. Lewis, known for "The Chronicles of Narnia," and a signed copy of "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil." Those two items alone sold for $27,435.
Will Passey, a specialist in Sotheby's books and manuscripts department, called the letter 'impressive' and said it stood as 'a testament to the strength' of the friendship between the two men.
The full collection, sold with buyer's premium included, brought in $138,890 in total.
Tolkien, who taught at Oxford University for much of his career, published "The Lord of the Rings" in the mid-1950s, a work that went on to shape the modern fantasy genre and remains among the best-selling novels of all time.
He died in 1973, and further material from his personal archive continues to surface at auction decades later.
Lewis, a close friend and fellow Oxford academic, died in 1963, the same year referenced in the letter sold as part of the Elgar collection.
The two writers were both members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary group that met regularly to discuss and critique each other's work.
Personal correspondence and manuscripts connected to major literary figures routinely draw strong interest among collectors, particularly when the material documents relationships not widely covered in published biographies.
The Elgar archive, built up over a single decade of letters, offers one such record of Tolkien's life outside his published work.
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