A love letter written in Hamburg by John Lennon to his then girlfriend Cynthia Powell has sold for nearly £70,000, almost doubling its pre-sale estimate.
The letter came at a pivotal time for Lennon and the Beatles.
While their residencies at clubs in Hamburg’s dockland and red light districts were pivotal to the band’s growth as a powerhouse live act, they were also tragic.
The River Elbe in Altona in Hamburg from where John wrote to Cynthia wistfully and lustily.
Stuart Sutcliffe, a great friend of John’s and an extremely accomplished artist, played bass for the band at the time.
On the trips he met and fell in love with Astrid Kirchherr, a German photographer whose tastes were to have a formative influence on the band, and whose images of them are still some of the most striking ever taken.
Sutcliffe died in Hamburg on April 10, 1962, just nine days before Lennon started to write this letter to Cynthia back in Liverpool.
He wrote: “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.”
Lennon also had more prosaic concerns on his mind.
John Lennon with Cynthia Lennon aboard a plane on a US tour. Their relationship was one of the casualties of The Beatles’ extraordinary unprecedented fame. Image courtesy of LA Times.
He was perturbed by Paul McCartney’s snoring in the bunk above him.
And keen to get home to his partner.
“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.”
They married in August 1962, and Cynthia gave birth to Julian, their only child, in April 1963.
The letter was listed for sale at Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts Sale, July 9, with an estimate range of £30,000 to £40,000. It sold for £69,300.
Christie’s told the Guardian nredpaper: “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 letter has been previously published in Hunter Davies’ collection of Beatles letters. Two lines have been cut out from the original paper by Cynthia.
She divorced from Lennon in 1968. Their relationship was often difficult and Lennon was certainly physically abusive on occasions.
She was Julian’s sole caregiver for most of his childhood and subsequently married three times. She opened a restaurant in north Wales, worked as an artist and wrote two memoirs.
Almost any paper relating to John Lennon could be very valuable. The highest price for a Lennon hand-written document is the $1.2 million achieved in 2010 for lyrics to A Day in the Life.
Cynthia held a number of auctions of Lennon memorabilia. She sold this letter in 1991 to a Swedish collector who is celebrating a great return today.
