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John Bowers (English) delivered the keynote presentation "Tolkien at Merton College" to the annual meeting of the Merton College Charitable Corporation convened at the Brooklyn Law School in April. He appeared at the invitation of the host, Nick Allard, dean of the Brooklyn Law School. Among the dignitaries present was the warden of Oxford's Merton College, Sir Martin Taylor, formerly of the Royal Society of London. Bowers made the case for honoring J. R. R. Tolkien, who was Merton Professor of Language and Literature (1945-59) and member of the college until his death in 1973, with a blue plaque on the house at 3 Manor Road, Oxford, where he revised The Hobbit and typed the final published version of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself recalled these accomplishments in a letter of 1964: "I typed out The Hobbit -- and the whole of The Lord of the Rings (and several sections many times) on my bed in an attic of Manor Road."