(MUSICIANS) JOPLIN JANIS Autograph Letter Signed XXX J to Pe

Sale 2674 - Lot 21

Price Realized: $ 5,000

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

"IN ART…I'M GOING TO DO A THING FOR…THE BEATLE MOVIE. I'M…A BIG BEAT ENTHUSIAST" (MUSICIANS.) JOPLIN, JANIS. Autograph Letter Signed, "XXX, J," to Peter De Blanc, asking for more details concerning his medical condition, describing each of her teachers, mentioning having met an old friend who divorced after a few months, explaining that she has chosen to do a Beatles-themed illustration for art class, and approving of his having asked her father for her hand in marriage. 6 pages, 8vo, written on rectos of separate sheets; horizontal fold. With the original envelope, addressed in holograph and additionally signed in the return address, "Miss Janis Joplin." [Port Arthur], 17 September [1965]

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". . . I was really glad to hear something about your condition, even if it was only a hypothesis. . . . So . . . they need little pieces of the spleen, liver & marrow . . . ; they won't have to operate, will they? . . .
". . . I'm really gassed--I like every one of my teachers. . . . My sociology teacher is named Drenan. . . . He's very ugly, but sounds like a pretty good teacher in a hung-over fashion. . . . And my English teacher is the type . . . that I have always secretly adored. She's about 55, tall w/ gray hair in a bun & very old-fashioned. Not out of touch w/ the times, mind you, but . . . constantly asks questions, smilingly, . . . & sprinkles her lectures with quotations from authors. . . . And . . . my history teacher . . . --I picked him because I liked him. He's . . . tall, young, suspender-wearing, kind of gawky, sloppily dressed . . . . And my French teacher is a beautiful young woman w/ a very quiet voice & a pleasant manner. She has very long curly hair all piles loosely up on top of her head & a lovely smile. . . .
". . . One girl that I spoke w/ today at lunch is an old friend who used to be married to Bob Clark. Yes, he was married. But it just didn't make it--only a few months. But Frances is very nice, probably the closest Beaumont [TX, where her school is located] has to a sophisticated independent type. Y'know, very theatery & intelligent. She's all right.
"In Art, we've been assigned three illustrations to do . . . . I'm going to do a thing for HELP!, the Beatle movie. I'm turning into a Big Beat enthusiast. Turning? Well, I already was. And I think the helter-skelter atmosphere ought to be a good thing to do. . . .
". . . I think it was lovely of you to write & ask my father for me [for her hand in marriage]. Wow, you're so sweet. . . ."
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.