The letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne, a collection stolen years ago and then resurfaced, will go to auction at Sotheby’s New York in June, with an estimate between 1.5 million and 2.5 million dollars.
Why does this epistolary core matter so much?
It consists of eight letters by Keats, bound in a leather volume, written between 1819 and 1820. During those months, the romantic poet, struck by tuberculosis, often entrusted the relationship with his fiancée to writing.
Keats and Brawne met in Hampstead, near London. To his brother, the poet described her as “beautiful and elegant, graceful, silly, fashionable, and strange”. The two became secretly engaged at the end of 1819.
What do Keats’s letters reveal about the relationship between the two?
The correspondence is part of a larger corpus of nearly 40 letters. Within those pages coexist the ardor of young love, reflection on beauty, fame, and one’s own mortality. Keats would die in Rome in 1821, at 23 years.
However, the most precious core is also the most fragile on a historical level. The first known letter, dated July 1819, was written during self-exile on the Isle of Wight. The poet composed it in the morning, calling it “the only proper time” to write to a beloved girl.
In that letter, Keats imagined a brief metamorphosis into butterflies for both of them for three summer days, because “such days with you” could contain more pleasure than fifty common years. It is one of the most famous formulations of his amorous prose.
How have they survived and why do they almost never bear stamps?
Seven out of eight letters have no postal stamps. The reason is simple: they were delivered by hand. Keats was convalescing at Wentworth Place, while Brawne lived in the house next door with her mother, Frances, who sometimes acted as a nurse.
That said, the proximity did not lessen the anxiety. In a letter from February 1820, Keats wrote that the illness stood between him and her like a barrier. He added that such thoughts had seemed weak to him when he was healthy, while every heartbeat was for Fanny.
After the poet’s death, Brawne hid the letters. Upon her passing, they went to the three children she had with Louis Lindo, a Jewish merchant. In 1878 they agreed to publish them, but in 1885 they sold them, causing public disapproval.
How did Oscar Wilde react?
Oscar Wilde openly condemned that sale. He wrote: “These are the letters which Endymion wrote, to one he loved in secret, and apart”. He added that the auction market merchants bargained for every stained note.
Wilde’s judgment helped establish the symbolic value of the correspondence, far beyond its economic value. The dossier has become a case of literary history, as well as of the market.
Who owned them and how did they resurface?
At the beginning of the 20th century, the eight letters entered the collection of John Hay Whitney. The family had built its wealth with publishing and finance, and lived on the estate of Manhasset, Long Island.
However, in the 1980s the letters were stolen along with another 27 rare books. The case found only a partial solution last year, when a man approached B&B Rare Books in Manhattan seeking help to sell Keats’s texts, along with works by Wilde and the Grimm brothers.
The booksellers did not believe the story of the bequest. They asked to hold onto the volumes while estimates were calculated and then alerted the authorities. In April of this year, 17 books were returned to the Whitney descendants by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
The public presentation will take place at Sotheby’s London between May 12 and 15, before moving to the United States for the sale on June 24 in the Fine Books and Manuscripts section. Overall, it is one of the most important love correspondences in the English language.
The letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne combine literary value, collector’s history, and a rare intertwining of loss and survival. For this reason, the June auction will attract the attention of bibliophiles, collectors, and scholars.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
She is also a marketing teacher at Digital Coach in Milan and she published a book about NFTs for the Italian publishing house Mondadori, while she is also helping artists and company to entering in the sector. As advisor, Amelia is also involved in metaverse-related project such as The Nemesis and OVER.
