Bibliofemme News
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14/04/2004
Dylan's love letter sells for $22k
Dylan Thomas's earliest surviving love letter to his future wife, Caitlin Macnamara, sold for more than £12,000 yesterday - nearly four times its estimated value.
The Welsh poet's letter to the young dancer he was introduced to in a London pub sold for $22,800 at Sotheby's in New York.
It was sent to Caitlin when she was recovering from an illness in a London hospital in 1936, shortly after the couple were introduced by the artist Augustus John.
The letter, which was sold with other items belonging to the poet, highlights the intensity of his love for her. Thomas writes: "Tell me everything; when you'll be out again, where you'll be at Christmas, and that you think of me and love me.
"And when you're in the world again, we'll both be useful if you like, trot round, do things, compromise with the They people, find a place with a bath and no bugs in Bloomsbury, and be happy there."
Thomas adds: "I love you so much I'll never be able to tell you; I'm frightened to tell you."
A first edition of Thomas's first book, 18 Poems, which he gave to Caitlin, was also sold. The book, inscribed "From Dylan to Caitlin. Lovingly - in spite", fetched £21,000, said a Sotheby's spokeswoman.
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