Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Keats Love Letter for Auction at Bonhams

The last letter in private hands from Keats to his lover Fanny Brawne has set a world record for a document by the poet when it sold for £96,000 at the Roy Davids Collection of Papers and Portraits at Bonhams today (29 March). It has been sold to an America buyer.

The previous record was set in 1990 when a manuscript of a Keats poem sold for $150,000.

Keats wrote the letter in 1820 a year before his death of consumption (TB) at the age of 25 in Rome.

Though Fanny lived next door to Keats their meetings were restricted by his health which also prevented even the most limited physical contact. Keats refers to this painful constraint in the letter, regretting the fact that they cannot kiss – TB being highly contagious – but consoling himself with the certainty of her love. The full text of the letter is given below.

The doomed love affair between Keats and Fanny Brawne is among the most famous in the history of literature and continues to fascinate succeeding generations as the success of the 2009 award winning film ‘Bright Star’ showed. Indeed, a note scribbled by Keats on the envelope, “You had better not come today” appears as a line in the film – a poignant reminder of the poet’s condition.

Roy Davids, himself a published poet, commented, “To own a manuscript by Keats is really the closest you can get to him both physically and mentally. In some degree, it is an act of worship.”

For further sale information please go to www.bonhams.com/eur/books/

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *