Keep Your Athelas-Pickin' Hands Offa Tolkien!

 Well, that's what the letter to the editor said.  First, the English Journal's four pages on how Lord of the Rings might be worthy of being taken seriously by scholars.  It's from/ the October 1967 issue.

I don't know what OTHER letters the Journal received, but I came across this one from a scornful teacher in the February 1968 issue.

You gotta admit, Ms Stein has a point.  As soon as the grownups say a book is good, half the kids will drop it like a stinky report card.  She was also prescient, if you take her comments about paperback editions driving readership.

Is Stein's opinion true today?  Would youngsters be chased away from a work due to adult acclaim?  Or has today's juvenile pop culture absorbed everybody?

Well, you're reading this.  I rest my case.  See you Thursday!