Printing Tolkien: Investigating the 1925 Oxford Professorship Application

 Printing Tolkien: Investigating the 1925 Oxford Professorship Application

Oronzo Cilli

 

This article arose from a question posed to me on Tolkien Guide by DM Roberts, after I had posted the cover image of the copy of the Application for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford by J.R.R. Tolkien, Professor of the English Language in the University of Leeds from 1925.

I was asked whether the booklet included the printer’s name, and since none appears on the Application, the matter intrigued me. Within a couple of hours, I carried out some research and checks, and reached a conclusion which I believe is well-founded.

Tolkien in 1925 and the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon

In 1925, Tolkien held the position of Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds, a post he had assumed the previous year after serving as Reader in English Language at the same university from 1920 to 1924.

Following the decision of Sir William Alexander Craigie, Tolkien’s former tutor, to vacate the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, the Oxford University Gazette of 12 June 1925 published a notice stating that candidates wishing to succeed him must submit their applications to the Registrar by 4 July, enclosing eight copies of statements, references, and certificates. The notice indicated that the role required teaching Old English language and literature, with the possibility of offering courses in other Old Germanic languages, particularly Icelandic. Furthermore, during the academic year, the professor was to deliver no fewer than forty-two lectures and reside at the University for at least six months between 1 September and 1 July, with a stipend of £1,000 per annum.

Intending to apply, Tolkien asked several colleagues to provide letters of support for his candidacy.

Tolkien’s Application for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, dated 25 June 1925, included a covering letter, a list of his publications, and reference letters from the following colleagues: L.R. Farnell, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford; Joseph Wright, retired Professor of Comparative Philology; the late Henry Bradley (letter dated 7 June 1920, likely reused from Tolkien’s 1920 application to Leeds); M.E. Sadler, former Vice-Chancellor of Leeds and now Master of University College, Oxford; George S. Gordon, Professor of English Literature at Merton, Oxford; Allen Mawer, Professor of English Language and Philology at the University of Liverpool; and Lascelles Abercrombie, Professor of English Literature at Leeds.

The Electors for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon met on 21 July 1925. Present: H.M. Chadwick, Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Cambridge; R.W. Chambers, Professor of English Language and Literature, University College London; Hermann G. Fiedler, Taylorian Professor of German Language and Literature, Oxford; C.T. Onions, lecturer in English, Oxford; the Rev. Charles Plummer, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, editor of medieval texts; Joseph Wells, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford; and H.C. Wyld, Professor of English Language and Literature, Merton, Oxford.

Two of the five candidates did not participate: Professor Allen Mawer of Liverpool and Professor Chambers, who declined a direct candidacy. Among the three remaining candidates were Tolkien and his former tutor, Kenneth Sisam. The Electors, with strong support from George S. Gordon, chose Tolkien, who received four votes to Sisam’s three. On 22 July, The Times announced Tolkien’s election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship. Obliged to give six months’ notice to the University of Leeds, Tolkien split his time between the two universities during the Michaelmas Term of 1925.

 

Tolkien’s Editorial Work in 1925

Let us recall what Tolkien published in 1925:

1. 23 April: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – a scholarly edition of the Middle English romance. Tolkien was responsible for the glossary and the text of the poem, while Gordon produced most of the accompanying notes.

2. April: ‘Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography’, in The Review of English Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2 – an academic essay divided into two parts: Part I discusses aspects of various Middle English words and their Modern English meanings, while Part II consists of a series of notes on the glossary to the Early English Text Society Edition of Hali Meidenhad.

3. July: ‘The Devil’s Coach-Horses’, in The Review of English Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3 – the essay examines eaueres, a word found in the 1922 Early English Text Society edition of Hali Meidenhad. Tolkien argues that rather than meaning ‘boar’, the word should be translated as ‘draught horse’.

The Sir Gawain edition was printed by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, the University of Oxford’s official printing and publishing house, managed directly by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The two essays in The Review of English Studies were printed by Sidgwick & Jackson, London.

At the same time, Tolkien was working with George S. Gordon, under the supervision of Kenneth Sisam, on the Clarendon Chaucer edition, also for the Clarendon Press.

It is therefore possible that Tolkien could have approached either the Clarendon Press or Sidgwick & Jackson in London to print his application. I have concluded, however, that he turned to the Clarendon Press of Oxford, for two main reasons:

1. All official prints of the University of Oxford (including documents such as applications or other forms) were produced by the OUP’s press, the Clarendon Press, or otherwise under the authority of the Delegates of the University Press. Tolkien’s candidacy was an official application for a chair at the University of Oxford.

2. The typeface used. In 1845, Robert Besley created a typeface widely used for printing dictionaries and similar works, named Clarendon, which was employed by the Clarendon Press. Comparing the typeface used in the 1925 Sir Gawain edition with that of Tolkien’s application, they are the same. In contrast, the typefaces used by Sidgwick & Jackson for The Review of English Studies differ and are closer to Didone.

 

Why the printer’s name does not appear on the application

The most plausible explanation is that there was no need to include the printer’s name on the Application, given its internal use and the limited number of copies (probably no more than ten).

It is interesting to note that in 1925 the Clarendon Press was undergoing an important organisational transition. In all Clarendon Press publications between 1925 and 1946, the following statement was included: “Printed in Great Britain at the University Press Oxford by John Johnson Printer to the University,” since Johnson was the official head of university printing. This statement is absent from the first edition of Sir Gawain (1925) but appears in subsequent reprints. 

The reason is that the book edited by Tolkien and Gordon was printed on 23 April 1925, while John de Monins Johnson was only officially confirmed in May 1925 by the Delegacy of the University Press as Printer to the University. However, Johnson’s name began to appear regularly on OUP books only from December 1925, because in the preceding months the press still used plates and forms from before his appointment, which did not include any printer’s name. His predecessor, Horace Hart, had left the post in 1915, and for the subsequent ten years the press had been managed internally by OUP staff.

In my view, Tolkien’s Application was therefore printed by the Clarendon Press under the authority of the Delegates of the University Press, but, bearing the date 25 June, it could not display John Johnson’s name.

 

Final Curiosity

It is noteworthy that the Application is dated 25 June 1925, yet three letters included within it have later dates:

1. Tolkien’s own covering letter is dated 27 June 1925

2. George Stuart Gordon’s reference letter is dated 27 June 1925

3. Allen Mawer’s reference letter is dated 25 June 1925

This could probably be explained by the fact that the layout was initially prepared for printing with the 25 June date, and that, due to some delays, the three letters were added afterwards.

Notes

[*] The text has only been published thanks to the valuable John Bowers' books: Tolkien’s Lost Chaucer (2019), which explores the abandoned project and sheds light on its genesis, evolution, and final fate, and Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913–1959 (2024), which publishes substantial material drawn from this work.