Minutes of the 514^th meeting of The Lovelace Club held on 14 February 1938 (WOR/JCR 6/1/9 at pp. 1-4)

On 14 February 1938 J. R. R. Tolkien addressed The Lovelace Club, a Worcester College literary society. For our second treasure from the collections I have chosen the minutes of this meeting; although parts of this story are well known, particularly since the publication of a collection of Tolkien’s letters in 1981, the role of Worcester College and the members of The Lovelace Club is worth repeating here.  It was through their laughter and appreciation of the story Tolkien read out that night that he began to consider a simple tale originally told to his children as worthy of publication.

Following our first blog post which featured not only an important treasure but the Librarian who unearthed it, I have chosen for my first piece from the Archives another treasure closely connected with a former College Librarian. This time the Librarian in question is Colonel Cyril Hackett Wilkinson, an alumnus of the College (matriculated 1906) who was appointed Fellow and Lecturer in English Literature in 1919 and became Librarian the same year.  He is chiefly remembered in College folklore as “The Dean”, a position he also held from 1919 until his retirement in 1957, and there are many stories told about his inventive punishments.  However, despite a reputation for strictness, he remained popular with undergraduates and participated in many of their events, particularly through his continued membership of the Lovelace Club.

Rules of the Lovelace Club, 1909, with a portrait of Colonel Lovelace

Established in 1884, the Lovelace Club was intended to ‘perpetuate the memory of Colonel Richard Lovelace’ (1617-1657), a poet and army officer who had been a member of Gloucester Hall (the institution that preceded Worcester College). Colonel Wilkinson published a two volume edition of Lovelace’s poems in 1925, and had previously been a member of the Lovelace Club while an undergraduate at Worcester, serving as secretary in 1909.  It was through his patronage of the Club while Dean and Librarian that it played host to J. R. R. Tolkien on 14 February 1938.

Minutes of the 514th meeting of the Lovelace Club, 14 February 1938

Following the successful publication of The Hobbit in 1937 Tolkien was being pressed for another manuscript by his publishers, and used his invitation to speak to the Lovelace Club as an opportunity to debut another story, then titled ‘The Legend of Worming Hall’.  This broke with the tradition of the Club, as speakers would generally present an essay on a literary topic; in a letter to his publishers, Tolkien indicated that he had been expected to provide “a paper ‘on’ fairy stories” (see The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1995), p. 39), rather than a story.  What Tolkien presented was something he had originally told his children in the 1920s, but updated for an older and more scholarly audience at the behest of Colonel Wilkinson.  That the Lovelace Club were delighted with the change in routine is clear from the minutes, which describe the President of the Club having to wait at the conclusion of the tale until “the society’s laughter had finally died down”.

The plot of the story, which sees the reluctant hero, Farmer Giles, ultimately rise to be king of the Little Kingdom through his unconventional method of vanquishing a dragon, is summarised in the minutes of the meeting. The Club’s appreciation of the story is evident from the secretary’s further comment that “the story was at the same time a witty and charming fantasy, to which no précis or reproduction can give justice”.  Tolkien’s experience of reading this story to the Lovelace Club persuaded him to offer it to his publishers as a follow up to The Hobbit.  However he soon realised that despite enlarging it by 50% for the Club it was not long enough for publication on its own and the project was shelved as he had nothing else that could be published with it (see The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1995), p. 40).

Ultimately, the story was too good to remain dormant and it was published in 1949, having been reworked again and given a new title: Farmer Giles of Ham.  In a letter to his publishers in 1947 Tolkien credited Colonel Wilkinson with the impetus for its completion, writing “I should like to put an inscription to C. H. Wilkinson on a fly-leaf, since it was Col. Wilkinson of [Worcester] College who egged me to it, and has since constantly egged me to publication” (see The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1995), p. 119).

Dedication to Colonel Wilkinson in Farmer Giles of Ham, illustrated by Pauline Baynes

During his lifetime J. R. R. Tolkien published only a few of the stories originally written for his children (though several have appeared posthumously). That he considered Farmer Giles of Ham worthy of publication must be partly down to the laughter and appreciation of the Lovelace Club and the support of their patron Colonel Wilkinson, making the record of this 514^th meeting of the Club a College treasure for its (albeit minor) role in literary history.

Emma Goodrum, Archivist

With thanks to Wayne G. Hammond for his advice

Bibliography

• Tolkien, J. R. R., Farmer Giles of Ham (London, 1999), edited with an introduction to the text by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond
• Carpenter, H. and Tolkien, C. (eds.), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: A Selection (Glasgow, 1995)
• Artamonova, Maria, ‘ “Minor” Works’, in Lee, S. D. (ed.), A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien (Chichester, 2014), pages 189-201