A tender message from John Lennon to his bride-to-be, Cynthia Powell, will go under the hammer at Christie’s on July 9. Auction watchers believe it might bring $54,000.
The music icon wrote this candid, humorous letter in 1962. He recorded his thoughts across four pages during five nights in Hamburg, where the band played shows. “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.” he wrote to Powell, according to The Guardian.
Lennon’s words described nights at Hamburg’s Star-Club, where The Beatles played long sets and took short breaks. Between tales of music, he poked fun at his bandmate: “Paul’s leaping about on my head (he’s in a bunk on top of me and he’s snoring) … Shurrup Mcarntey!” He also asked Powell not to move in with McCartney’s girlfriend, Dot Rhone, to preserve their privacy.
Written when he was 21, the words reveal a young man at the beginning of his stardom. “You sense that life is quite simple for him at this point: it’s about playing music with the Beatles and going home to see Cynthia,” said Thomas Venning, head of books and manuscripts at Christie’s, to CNN.
In darker moments, the writing turns to Stuart Sutcliffe, The Beatles’ former bass player. He died from brain bleeding just nine days before, and Lennon discussed awkward feelings when meeting Sutcliffe’s fiancée, Astrid Kirchherr.
Lennon and Powell met at an art school in Liverpool, and they married in August 1962. Then, they divorced in November 1968, after Lennon’s affair with Yoko Ono. The letter changed hands twice after Powell sold it to someone in Sweden in 1991. Sharp-eyed experts at Christie’s found two small cuts in the paper, likely where Powell removed private words.
