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

Sale 2674 - Lot 22

Price Realized: $ 5,500

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

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

"I'VE BEEN PLAYING THE GUITAR QUITE A BIT . . . MOSTLY BLUES" (MUSICIANS.) JOPLIN, JANIS. Autograph Letter Signed, "XXX, J," to Peter De Blanc, mentioning schoolwork, repeatedly expressing worry about his mental health, reporting that she had been playing guitar and singing and arranging songs, and encouraging him to write or call her. 5 pages, 8vo, written on rectos of separate sheets; uneven toning affecting much of fifth page (but still legible), horizontal fold. With the original envelope, addressed in holograph and additionally signed in the return address, "Miss Janis Joplin." [Port Arthur], 3 October [1965]

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"I always enjoy writing to you on Sunday afternoons; things are so nice around here . . . . I thought the tone of the letter might be different. . . .
"I don't know why, but I have the feeling that you're pretty depressed. Maybe your last letter, maybe because you didn't call today. . . . [Y]ou mentioned seeing a psychiatrist & that led me to believe that you must be having trouble. Are you? What's wrong? . . . [Y]our letter . . . was so vague that I still don't know what's wrong. . . . I'm just concerned. I just want to help you. . . .
"I've been playing the guitar quite a bit--Laura's. And I've got big, hard, flaky callouses on my fingers. . . . I have worked up official--good enough for in front of people--arrangements to 4 or 5 songs. Mostly blues. And of course I've learned to pick well enough to do all manner of Joanie [Baez] ballads. . . .
"Oh fuck, Peter, I can't get over it. . . . I'm afraid you're having trouble w/ your head. . . . You still know who & where you are, don't you? . . . You aren't getting fucked up behind it are you? Oh damn, what a drag I am! . . . [F]uck baby, you're all I've got & I just have to know you're okay! . . .
". . . I'm sorry I'm such a drag--I'm none too stable myself, & I worry about you baby. . . . I don't know what I'd do if you weren't okay. . . ."
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.