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Letter 60

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The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 60
RecipientChristopher Tolkien
DateApril 13, 1944
Subject(s)News during wartime, progress report on The Lord of the Rings

Letter 60 is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.


Christopher had arrived in his training camp in South Africa and letters were beginning to flow again between him and his father. Tolkien missed his son but reported that things had begun to be easier for him. He had helped admit more cadets but that task was done. He had seen C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams for two hours. He read his recent chapter from The Lord of the Rings to approbation and had started another.

Since the letter did not get sent Tolkien added more on April 15th. At a meeting at Magdalen with Lewis, Williams, Warren H. Lewis,[note 1] and the Useless Quack,[note 2] they had heard W.H. Lewis read from his projected book on Louis XIV. The subject did not interest Tolkien but it was wittily written. He also thought little of the conclusion of C.S. Lewis's latest allegory.

Tolkien had managed to get Frodo nearly to the gates of Mordor. He told of other incidents in his life and said he would continue the "Ring" in every salvable moment.


  1. C.S. Lewis’s brother
  2. Robert Havard