Food rationing didn't end until '54.
Tolkien wrote in a letter dated 1952:
Quote:
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As for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, they are where they were. The one finished (and the end revised), and the other still unfinished (or unrevised), and both gathering dust. I have been both off and on too unwell, and too burdened to do much about them, and too downhearted. Watching paper-shortages and costs mounting against me.
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And I'm sure the price of an out-sized book would hurt sales. Paperbacks were shorter back then because publishers didn't think people would pay more than 50 cents.