At age 64, John Fowles fell in love with a 21-year-old Cambridge graduate named Elena. Depressed, impotent, ill, he told Elena she saved his life, and she probably did. His letters and notes to her went up for auction at Sotheby's, which described them as:
"33 autograph cards, or series of two or more cards on particular dates, including some autograph notes on slips of paper, and c.92 typed letters and cards, usually initialled "J", some partly autograph or with autograph corrections, one letter enclosing a five-page photocopy of printed "Diagnostic Criteria for the Major Mood Disorders"; together with eight letters addressed to Elena's parents, Jack and Olive; twenty-three pages of journal entries by Fowles in typescript with autograph corrections, partly photocopied, sent by him to Elena; several typed poems by him with autograph corrections; a photocopy of another one; and a typescriot of "A Dialogue to be performed on a tightrope", c.240 pages in all, various sizes, chiefly 30 September 1990 to 25 February 1992 (where dated), a few in 1997-1998"
Fowles was, as he well knew, as passionate and eloquent and foolish as any 17-year-old: "Lyme without you is so stale, so empty, you can't imagine ....I get desperately bored with my own company... This leads to frequent philosophical musings on the intensity of his feelings for her. As well as on the nature of love and of beauty...I'm not just in love with you, I'm in meta-love....I live in and by you..." etc.
Estimated to go for between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds, the material went anonymously at the bottom of that range: 25,000, including buyer's premium.
Comments