John F. Kennedy and his wife on November 22, 1963 shortly before his death. – UPI / AFP
Letters written in 1955 and 1956 by John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Swedish aristocrat Gunilla von Post, his mistress, have just been sold for $ 88,426 (around 73,000 euros). The online auctions organized by RR Auction, an auction house in Boston, ended on Wednesday. The author of the handwritten letters had not yet become President of the United States at the time of these exchanges, specifies CNN.
#JFK‘s Swedish phishing letters.https://t.co/HhGSpdhju0 via @BostonGlobe
— Mark James Pothier (@markpothier) May 8, 2021
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on the other hand, was already married to Jacqueline Bouvier, whom he had married in 1953. He was then a senator from Massachusetts. The letters to Gunilla von Post are, moreover, written on the official letterhead of the United States Senate. The lot sold at auction consisted of a complete letter and two extracts from other missives, in a total of eight pages. It was offered as part of a sale of objects linked to the presidents of the United States.
A book written in 1997 on their history
The future head of state had met the Swede in Cannes a few weeks before her wedding, says RR Auction on its website. Gunilla von Post, who died in 2011, wrote a book in 1997 recounting her love affair with JFK. She affirmed that after a week in the summer of 1955 spent in Sweden with her lover, the latter wanted to end her marriage and live in the United States with the Swedish woman.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s political ambitions, his father’s influence and Jackie Kennedy’s miscarriage and pregnancy had forced them to abandon their plans. In one of the letters, JFK called the recipient “exceptional” and said he was “really anxious” to find her. He spoke of the “luminous memory in his life” which constituted the moments spent with the Swedish woman, which he “misses” and that he “would like to see”. The author also deplored the future marriage of Gunilla von Post with “a farmer”.
–
