?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 5,000
"I THOUGHT…I LOOKED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE…BUT I'M…DIFFERENT SOMEHOW" (MUSICIANS.) JOPLIN, JANIS. Autograph Letter Signed, "I love you so / Janis," to Peter De Blanc, with a small ink drawing, expressing satisfaction about her schoolwork, inquiring about his plans, remarking that her natural skin color is returning [presumably because of the change from her previously unhealthy lifestyle], introducing her family and pets to him by describing her religious and adoring mother and reluctantly wealthy father and Baez-ballad singing sister and fawning brother, suggesting the possibility of a wedding at home, hoping he is able to leave San Francisco, expressing relief that she was able to leave, remarking that she feels different from others even as she dresses and behaves as they do, describing some newly purchased clothing, and sending photographs of herself and her family [not present]. The drawing, small sketch showing her new dresses and underpants, at lower edge of seventh page, 2x5½ inches. 8 pages, 8vo, written on recto and verso of 4 ruled sheets torn from spiralbound notebook; folds. With the original envelope, addressed in holograph and additionally signed in the return address, "Miss Janis Joplin." Port Arthur, "Friday noon" [23 July 1965: postmark dated 24 July]
". . . I'm sitting in the Student Union of Lamar Tech having just done a magnificent job on my first History test & I miss you... I LOVE YOU. I hope you still love me. Write me? Please! . . . Have you heard from the Army? Have you found a job? . . . Are we going to be together before Christmas? Should I plan on enrolling next semester? I'm just waiting for you, you know--tell me what you want me to do . . . . [Y]ou should see me--I'm not 'green' anymore--just barely regular-people color! . . . ". . . I just went to the store and bought myself three more dresses w/ the new checking acct that my Father gave me (my first!) . . . . Let me introduce my family: "My mother--Dorothy--worries over & loves her children dearly. Republican and Methodist, very sincere, speaks in cliches which she really means . . . . "My father--richer than when I knew him & kind of embarrassed about it--very well read . . . quiet and very excited to have me home because I'm bright and we can talk (about anti-matter . . .--that impressed him! . . .) "My sister--15 years old--lovely sweet girl (I very magnanamously [sic] bought her a make-up bag--y'know, show her a few tricks, heh heh. . . . ) She's learned to play guitar quite well on a guitar I gave her last year & she sings Joan Baez ballads in a very sweet voice. In fact, tonight she's singing at MYF [Port Arthur Methodist Youth Fellowship?] & I'm going to hear her. . . . My father . . . said that Laura had said that she didn't think that I was wrong in anything that I had ever done & that made me feel very nice. . . . We talk about folk music & I talk about you & she's thrilled for me. "My brother--Michael . . . . Absolutely huge . . . floppy hair, levis & bicycles. . . . likes to show off and impress me . . .--wow, he's a nice little boy! . . . "So, aside from the two cats, Dusty & Bonita, you've met my family. I hope you like them--they like you. I have your picture on the desk where I do my homework . . . . "Last night Mother & I talked about having a home wedding . . . I said that you wanted to get married in the Church, but maybe we would get married here w/ a pastor or some such--we were just talking though--no plans or anything . . . . "I really miss you--it's been 5 days, you know. I don't know whether I can last 6 mo's--I'd probably come to San Francisco just to see you. I love you. . . . I miss being able to fix things for you & do things for you & make you proud of me & looking at you & walking with you . . . . "Funniest thing though--I thought that since I wasn't KING-BEATNIK & ATTENTION-SEEKER anymore and I wore dresses and shoes & makeup & acted quietly and everything that I looked like everyone else . . . . But I'm still just sort of different somehow. . . . ". . . I have 5 new dresses: [sketch of each with labels plus sketch of "a new pair of pettipants!"]. . . ." Janis Joplin (1943-1970), whose blues-belting voice assaulted the psychedelic scene of the late 1960s, hid a tumultuous inner life, whose revelation in this letter helps explain how she became the symbol of power and passion that she remains today. Before her rise as the lead of Brother & the Holding Company in the summer of 1966, Joplin had taken a break from her life in San Francisco, leaving behind a lover there: Peter De Blanc. De Blanc supported Joplin's determination to sober up by moving to her home town of Port Arthur, TX, where she attended school and wrote to her lover. Their plan to marry was broken off when she learned that De Blanc was expecting a child with another woman, after which she returned to her former life in California and where, five years later, she died from a heroin overdose.
