Dylan love letter fetches �12,000

The earliest surviving love letter written by Dylan Thomas to his future wife

The earliest surviving love letter written by Dylan Thomas to his future wife has fetched more than £12,000 pounds at auction in New York.

The Welsh poet's letter to Caitlin Macnamara was sold at Sotheby's for nearly four times its estimated value.

It was sent in 1936 when Caitlin was recovering from illness in a London hospital.

The eight-lot collection of Dylan Thomas letters and manuscripts sold for £73,462 ($132,900) on Tuesday.

The items fetched a total in excess of the estimated price of £50,000.

Unknown buyers

The most expensive lot was a first edition of Thomas' first collection, 18 Poems, signed "From Dylan to Caitlin. Lovingly - in spite," which brought £21,225 ($38,400).

A hand-written manuscript of Thomas' poem Fern Hill fetched £20,200 ($37,200) - more than double its estimated value.

The identity of the buyers of the collection is not known.

The love letter was written by Thomas in October 1936, shortly after he was introduced to Caitlin and while she was in hospital.

He wrote: "I don't want you for a day (though I'd sell my toes to see you now my dear, only for a minute, to kiss you once and make a funny face at you): a day is the length of a gnat's life: I want you for the lifetime of a big, mad animal, like an elephant.

"I love you so much I'll never be able to tell you; I'm frightened to tell you."

The couple who lived in Swansea and Carmarthenshire were married for 16 years before Thomas' early death in 1953.

The letters, manuscripts and poems were sold by Caitlin to American collector Maurice F Neville in 1975 - 19 years before her death.

More than 250 items of the Neville collection, including the eight Thomas lots, were sold for £2.8m ($5.2m) on Tuesday.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version