Letter 305a

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 305a
Recipient	Alan Klass
Date	30 August 1968
Subject(s)	Moving home, recovering from injury

Letter 305a 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 Alan Klass, whose daughter Baillie had recently married Christopher, Tolkien described the aftermath of a recent accident and the ensuing chaos of his house move. Due to his absence, the burden of managing the move fell heavily on Edith, leading to significant disarray. Tolkien had to leave the hospital prematurely to assist her, although their new house was not ready for three weeks.

During this time, Tolkien's son John sacrificed most of his annual holiday to help them settle. The high season in the busy resort town and ongoing construction made it extremely difficult to get any services or assistance. Despite being supposed to use crutches due to his injury, Tolkien had to exert himself physically. He was hopeful that things would be in order before his return to the Oxford hospital the next week. Tolkien planned to spend only a few nights in the hospital after removing the plaster cast, which he had worn since July 11, before transferring to the care of a local surgeon for further therapy.