J.R.R. TOLKIEN: HOSS SUM'BITCH Followed a Mark Steyn link to this page, which features a draft of a letter by Tolkien. It seems a German publisher in the late '30s was interested in putting out a German-language version of The Hobbit, and had contacted Tolkien's publisher, Allen & Unwin to negotiate a deal. But before negotiations began, they wanted to know: was Tolkien of aryan extraction? The blogger posts a draft of Tolkien's reply, which is great, and adds an interesting data-point to the "is the Lord of the Rings racist?" debate.