[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I don't know, you mentioned the books, I'm just pointing out that they must have been as rare as hens' teeth.

See http://kayaozkaracalar3.blogspot.ca/ for a blog about Disney in Britain, largely covering material from the 30s. Disney books were not “as rare as hen’s teeth″ in Britain of the 30s but instead rather common.

Note the many items on the right-hand side of this blog, each of which lists still more Disney publications in Britain. Your belief in the rarity of Disney print publications in Britain of the 30s is only your own incorrect personal beliefs which are not born out by the facts.

Yes, he might have seen some in a bookshop. It's still more likely that his main exposure to Disney was at the cinema. Apart from Priscilla, his kids were too old by 1937 to get kids' books - granted Priscilla might have enjoyed them, but they weren't common books, …

Again see the Disneyville archives http://kayaozkaracalar3.blogspot.ca/...1_archive.html , and http://kayaozkaracalar3.blogspot.ca/...lications.html for the facts which refute your invention that the Disney books and weekly Disney newsletter were not reasonably common books in Britain in the 30s. See also the discussion of the British Mickey Mouse Weekly at http://www.mouseplanet.com/8365/The_...e_Weekly_Story which was first published in 1936 and ran until 1961. “Soon, the circulation of Mickey Mouse Weekly was 750,000 copies per week.”

Nothing posted by anyone but you even suggests that Tolkien ever bought any Disney books for Priscilla or anyone else. Why do you persist in this absurdity?

… and you certainly wouldn't have got a 'sale bin' in a 1930s bookshop in Britain, as people could barely afford to buy food, let alone books. Cinema tickets were as cheap as (and possibly cheaper than) chips, though.

Britain, then as now, had a large number of publishing companies, including George Allen & Unwin. Obviously their products were being sold. Mickey Mouse Weekly cost only 2 pennies per issue. Some people always are in the position of barely being able to buy food. That people in general in Britain could barely afford to buy food is a gross exaggeration. Yes cinema tickets were relatively cheap and it is quite probable that Tolkien’s first experience with Disney animation was in the cinema. My contention is that his fear that Disney influence was likely in American children’s book publication suggests that he knew that Disney material and similar material appeared in book form.

Evidence shows that he would have had numerous chances to be aware of Disney publications in book stores, if you just look for the evidence. As a would-be children’s book writer who had written The Hobbit, Mr. Bliss, and Roverandom Tolkien would be likely to be more interested in perusing children’s literature in bookstores than most adults, especially as Tolkien was not able to get Mr. Bliss and Roverandom published.

I'm just weighing up the likelihood of where he encountered Disney is all!

Nowhere have I found suggested anywhere in this thread before now that it was about “the likelihood of where he encountered Disney”. What I see is you and you alone claiming that Tolkien could not have encountered Disney from books because there weren’t any Disney books in Britain, or hardly any. That just isn’t true. You were mistaken. There were several publishers in Britain publishing Disney material in the 30s and presumably mostly making money from it as they continued to publish Disney material.

You seem to contend that Tolkien’s fear of influence by Disney on Amercan children’s book animation was almost solely paranoid fantasy. Arguing solely from likelihood, it seems to me very likely that Tolkien, as well as having seen Disney animation, had also seen at least some of the many, many Disney articles on sale in Britain at the time.