Letter 349a

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 349a
Recipient	Michael Tolkien
Date	24 March 1973
Subject(s)	Letter writing

Letter 349a is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition.

Summary

In this letter to his son Michael, Tolkien reflects on the joys and challenges of letter writing. He finds receiving letters very uplifting and notes how both he and Michael share a tendency for words to spark further words, leading thoughts to meander into various tangents. Tolkien expresses that writing itself brings pleasure, though settling down to do so can be difficult.

He contrasts his style with that of "mummy", who wrote with clarity and brevity. While her concise writing came naturally to her, Tolkien admits that achieving such brevity is for him a laborious process. He often only achieves this "laconic" style as an art form, by extensively editing and cutting down what he has written, a task he finds time-consuming and demanding.