Megan Littlewood
Sale Coordinator
The Estate of Marianne Faithfull
Lot 9
Marianne Faithfull: A large collection of personal correspondence, Various dates, Qty
Ending from 3 December 2025, 12:00 GMT
Online, London, Knightsbridge£1,000 - £1,500
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Rebecca Anthony
Associate Specialist
Fred Lawton
Cataloguer
Marianne Faithfull: A large collection of personal correspondence,
Various dates,
A collection of personal correspondence, comprising letters from Marianne Faithfull to Yoko Ono and Damon Albarn; letters to Faithfull from Martin Sharp, John Dunbar, and Gene Pitney; together with an important early typed letter to her father and a letter written on Shell Cottage headed paper, among many others; Accompanied by a blue box with her personalised stationery, (Qty)
A collection of personal correspondence, comprising letters from Marianne Faithfull to Yoko Ono and Damon Albarn; letters to Faithfull from Martin Sharp, John Dunbar, and Gene Pitney; together with an important early typed letter to her father and a letter written on Shell Cottage headed paper, among many others; Accompanied by a blue box with her personalised stationery, (Qty)
Footnotes
A revealing group of personal letters illuminating the intimate networks that shaped Marianne's early life and later career. Spanning correspondence with friends, partners, and professional peers, from her first husband, John Dunbar, to an letter addressed to Yoko Ono, these letters offer a rare insight into the ways in which she maintained connection with those around her. A brief, informal message to Damon Albarn, written on fax-return paper, suggests the casual immediacy of their exchange.
Particularly striking is a typewritten letter to her father, written when Marianne had just completed her O-level examinations. The voice is unmistakably that of a young Marianne, as she describes her results with a mixture of humour and exasperation, calling her English exam "tragic" after missing a question on St Joan. Imagining possible futures, she writes that, should she fail, she might "go to France for a year, learning cookery at the Cordon Bleu, or something." In contrast, if her results were strong, she contemplates taking Divinity, Old Testament and early theology, because of the influence of a "very clever Dominican nun" with a philosophy doctorate who had captured her curiosity.
What is also compelling is not simply the content of these letters, but the fact that Marianne chose to keep them. Carefully preserved across the decades, they form an affecting archive of her personal history.
We have included an image of HRH The Queen's invitation to Marianne which was displayed in her Boulevard du Montparnasse apartment, and is included in this lot.
Provenance:
From the Estate of Marianne Faithfull.