[Mithalwen]

I WAS trying to make a distinction between stuff he had written regarding Middle Earth ( and from even my superficial reading of HoME it seems to contain every last jotting on the back of an envelope.) and private writing.

I want to know everything there is about Middle Earth certainly, and he put Middle Earth into the public domain so I think it is reasonable that these be published or accessible ...( but when reading them I think it should be remembered that they are unfinished work at best and much is in draft or part- formed ideas)

HoweverI am not sure we have the right to know everything about the man. As with not knowing more of Olorin, than was revealed in Gandalf, I don't think we have the right to know to know more about him than he reveals in his work. So I think we don't have the right to have unlimited access to personal letters and diaries and the question of whether he was a great artist or a great storyteller is irrelevant. It has to stop somewhere.... would it be ok to see his medical records? Get his priest to break the seal of confession? Exhume him to see if he were genetically programmed to some mindview........ Biographical information can be a distraction from the work.... I don't think that venturing part of yourself into public life means you totally lose the right to any privacy, though given the success of the tabloid press in the UK I am clearly in a minority on this one.

Finally I don't think for a moment that it would end speculation - much more likely to feed it. After all if "published" essays such as Tree and Leaf are obscure enough to need explanation then how much more explanation are letters and diaries going to need? After all the only person who usually reads a diary knows exactly what the writer means!.... and generally such documents are less considered than more formal writings. Tolkien lived in the age of the letter which may have given permanent form to trivial thought and so disproportionate significance to those who would praise and blame them....... More information doesn't always resolve matters just raises more questions...