John Lennon’s personal letter to first wife, Cynthia, to be sold at auction
A letter from 1962 handwritten by John Lennon to his future wife, Cynthia Powell, is set to be sold at auction.
The letter was written over five nights after concerts in the Beatles’ Hamburg residency in April of 1962. At age 21, Lennon admitted his love for Powell, writing, “I love love love you and I’m missing you like mad … I wish I was on the way to your flat with the Sunday papers and chocies and a throbber.”
Lennon was already complaining about bandmate Paul McCartney, rallying against his snoring in the letter. He wrote, “Paul’s leaping about on my head (he’s in a bunk on top of me and he’s snoring) … Shurrup Mcarntey [sic]!”
Lennon continued on his complaint against McCartney, revealing to Powell that he does not like the idea of McCartney’s then girlfriend, Dot Rhone, moving in with her. He wrote, “We would never be alone really … imagine having her there all the time when we were in bed – and imagine Paul coming all the time.”
Other comments in the letter include, “I wonder why all the newspapers wrote about Stu … I haven’t seen Astrid since the day we arrived I’ve thought of going to see her but I would be so awkward.” The letter is estimated to sell for between £30,000 and £40,000.
At this point, Lennon and Powell had been in a relationship for four years. She was a year older than him; and they met originally at Liverpool College of Art. Soon after this letter, they married in August 1962, and their son, Julian, was born in April 1963. Half a decade later, the couple divorced.
The handwritten letter was sold by Cynthia to a Swedish collector in 1991. It then changed hands to the Swedish vendor in 1993. Thomas Venning of Christie’s said of the letter, “There are some smutty and funny bits and you sense his personality on the page, unlike his later letters which are more guarded and preachy. It provides an early insight into the Beatles from their time in Hamburg which was so important to their development as a band.”
The auction will take place on July 9th.
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