Morrissey's Teenage Letters Fetch £22k

An archive of teenage letters written by Morrissey to a Birmingham pen friend between 1974 and 1979 is heading to auction. Expected to fetch a combined £22,000 (€25,814) estimate, the collection captures the future Smiths frontman’s early literary ambitions, sharp wit, and formative encounters with punk rock.

Dawsons Auctioneers in London

Long before the world learned his name as the distinctive voice of The Smiths, a teenage Steven Morrissey was busy chronicling his grand ambitions for pen friend Simon Pitt, who would go on to become Birmingham’s poet laureate. Spanning the years 1974 to 1979, the correspondence captures the future star between the ages of 14 and 20 as he navigated adolescence and plotted a path toward superstardom. The archive is now heading to Dawsons Auctioneers in London, where the items are being offered as separate lots in a sale titled Before The Smiths: The Morrissey Letters.

Peter Mason, auctioneer and senior valuer at Dawsons, noted of the collection: What struck me most was just how funny Morrissey is.

The letters offer an unfiltered window into the young artist’s psyche, blending youthful bravado with self-aware humor. In one early note from the collection, Morrissey lays out his career roadmap with absolute clarity: My ambition is to be a rock 'n' roll star or an actor, or a writer.

Just a number of weeks later, another letter leans further into his burgeoning persona with the declaration: I always said I was a genius, but nobody listened.

England Is Mine Biopic

The period documented in the letters was previously featured in the 2017 biopic England Is Mine, which follows the young singer as he struggles to find his place before forming The Smiths with guitarist Johnny Marr in 1982.

Along with personal musings, the correspondence details Morrissey’s shifting relationship with the exploding 1970s punk scene. He speaks about seeing The Sex Pistols at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, an event that sharply altered his opinion of the group. In the letter, he writes: As for the Pistols… they were pathetic. I take back all that I've said about the Pistols… They are just plain bad. Period.

By contrast, the collection documents his enthusiasm for other musical figures. Morrissey talks about meeting Patti Smith, along with Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan of The New York Dolls—a band for which Morrissey served as president of the UK fan club. The teenager also recounts visiting the legendary New York punk club CBGB, attempting to join The Clash while there, and eventually becoming the vocalist with Manchester punk band The Nosebleeds, marking his first experience fronting a group.

I'm in showbusiness… I'll spring on this unsuspecting world yet… One thing I won't do is record for the sake of it… I'm all set for superstardom. But then, I've always been a star, haven't I? Reflecting

Margaret Thatcher’s Victory in the 1979 General Election

The collection also touches on Morrissey’s political views and his aspirations of relocating to America. One letter, written following Margaret Thatcher’s victory in the 1979 general election, asks: Did you vote? Labour, I hope? God knows what tortures that miserable Thatcher has prepared for us woikin' class folk. I dread to fink.

In the final letter of the sequence, Morrissey discloses that he has joined a London band who have a recording contract and all that rubbish.