Past Auctions

Zane Grey, angry letter to his fiance defending his ambitious nature, four pages front and back, New York, NY, September 28, 1902, to Lina E. Roth, with original envelope. In part: My dear little girl-/ I am very sorry I acted as I did last night and hope you will forget all about it./I don’t know exactly what was wrong with me, but I imagine it was the usual case of the blues. Why I should always make you feel so badly is something beyond me…You tell me to look at the bright side of things. My dear, there is no bright side for me. You will say this is absurd. I can prove it is not./ Were my temperament and disposition such that I could be satisfied and content with work, and work all the time, without any real life, there might be a bright side to things./ But I love to be free. I cannot change my spots./ The ordinary man is satisfied with a moderate income, a home, wife, children and all that./ That is all right and just what a man ought to be./ But I am a million miles from being that kind of a man no amount of trying will ever do any good./ I want to be somebody. I want fame. I do not want much money, but I want enough to keep me from worrying to death all the time, as I have for years…. Grey closes with a brusque, Last night you failed, for the first time, to understand me. signed Pearl, dropped in favor of Zane when he began to publish.

Estimate: $400 - $800