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JOPLIN, JANIS

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
JOPLIN, JANIS
(1943 - 1970) American rock and blues singer who incorporated the styles of Bessie Smith and Billy Holliday producing albums with Big Brother and the Holding Company and Full Tilt Bogie Band. Died of a heroin overdose in 1970. Excessively rare A.L.S. "Janis" with two original self-portrait sketches and a third sketch, 6pp. 4to., Port Arthur, Texas, Oct. 13, 1965 to her lover, Peter De Blanc in New York. This fine letter was penned just months before Joplin's career took off. At this time, she was living at home with her parents, hoping to rebuild her life and recover from her drug abuse of the previous few years. During that time she sang in small venues in New York and San Francisco, where she first met De Blanc. Shortly after this letter was written, Joplin moved to Austin and then to San Francisco where she joined Big Brother & the Holding Company. In a very legible, clear hand, she writes in part: "… Do you think I'm going to be out-classed by your new friends? I mean, I'm a nice lady & everything, but Good God, if you & your friends sit around playing Bach, what is that going to make me? That funny, loud wife or something? Jeez, I'm not being insecure or anything, it's just that I don't want to be competing when I'm out-distanced…I've never been to finishing school - in fact, I doubt that I'm even finished!…I just hope that I'm okay & I don't want to embarrass you…I have a new hair style [she illustrates the letter with front and side views of the style]…I look like a lady…I got the first thing for our house - 6 cups. They were on sale…I hope you're doing well and behaving yourself. I sure do miss you…it would be fine for you to come down here, I just don't want you to be seekign asylum or something down here…Anything you decide to do is okay w/me - wow, I really would like to see you, you know - but don't come fleeing down here because you're lonely because you won't be lonely long & then you'll be stuck in Texas…" With holograph transmittal envelope, fine condition.