What is the name of the Tolkien manuscript collection held at Marquette University that includes The Lord of the Rings drafts?

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The J.R.R. Tolkien Collection at Marquette University includes drafts and manuscripts related to The Lord of the Rings. The university acquired the collection from Tolkien in 1957, shortly after the novel's publication, and it became one of the most important archives for studying his writing process.

The holdings include manuscripts and typescripts for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Farmer Giles of Ham, as well as maps, illustrations, and other papers. The material documents Tolkien's extensive revisions, changing names, altered plot plans, and development of languages and geography.

The collection is at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Oxford also holds major Tolkien materials, including the Bodleian's Tolkien archive, but the Marquette collection is especially famous for the working manuscripts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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