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JOPLIN, JANIS

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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 fine content A.L.S. ""J"" with holograph transmittal envelope signed ""Miss Janis Joplin"", 6pp. 8vo., [Port Arthur, Texas, Sep. 8, 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 the 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: ""à A guitar player that I met in Beaumont came by w/a friend of his & we sang a little. He wants me to go up to Houston w/him to a folk music club & sing. He thinks I'm good & says he can get me $125 a week. But I told him I was going to schoolàBut, we'll seeàan old friend of mine who lives in Austinà[has] started a booking agencyà[he] knows lots of people who play: so he called me wanting to form a group, w/me singing, to work around Austin on the weekendsàif the Houston thing pans out, I might do that for a weekend ($20 a night)àa girlfriend of mine from Beaumont calledàThey've found an old spade blues piano player & asked me to come upàSo, I'm going up there to sing tonightàThis will be the first evening that I've been outàalmost entirely, I stay homeàI'm going to mail this, then off to Beaumontà"". Two pieces, the letter is fine, the envelope very good.