ALS signed “Stuart XXXXXXXX,” three pages, 8.25 x 11.5, “Thursday,” no date. Sutcliffe writes to his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr, whom he addresses as “Darling Angel-face, Astrid, my love.” The first paragraph is in Sutcliffe’s broken German, a language he was then learning; the remainder is in English. In part (translated): “Today is terrible, but I arrived back home this morning…. Everything I am about to say is quite unimportant and only between the two of us. My youthful bustle … is filling one room with transparent string noodles—I am always the elephant in the china store—the frosty elephant in the mirror…. [The following in English] In this moment I am so unhappy, everything is wrong for me and I need you so much to talk to and be a bit angry with…. The customs man was so horrible and took all my things and I have stand [sic] one hour and he said I must leave the camera with him … till I go home, now I can’t make beautiful photographs like I have wish [sic]. I am so sad angel, because when you were here then all would be different and I would not be intersted [sic]. You must not be frightened about the camera, when I come home I have it again. He said I must pay £18!! to take it into the country, but I won’t tell you everything, I will wait till I come back to you, my little angel. I hope you are not big cranky, I am so angry with these stupid people, because they make me so nervous and hysterical and then I write horrible letters to you…. In the train still my angelic little princess, and how much I miss you already. You can’t count the sighs, or know how small I feel without your love. So sad, a little girl with her mother sits by me, the little girl is only a baby but she seems to know how to make me think about you. She drinks her orange so quickly (like you, when you drink the cold milk from the ice-box) and her eyes so big and happy and she holds her little stomach…. I have open [sic] the case and see your terribly sad little letter, my heart is so ashamed and lies in broken pieces in my stomach….” Intersecting mailing folds (vertical fold through signature) and a touch of mild handling wear, otherwise fine condition. COA Roger Epperson/REAL and R&R COA.
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