April 2019 Auction Ends Thursday, April 25th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/25/2019
Charming and articulate autograph letter twice-signed by Rudolph Valentino as a young 15-year old in agricultural school in S. Ilario, Italy. Valentino writes to his childhood friend Bruno Pozzan - signing the letter both ''Rodolfo'' and with his surname ''Rodolfo Guglielmi'', showing an eagerness to learn agriculture, his chosen profession in Italy before moving to Hollywood. Lengthy six-page letter is dated 11 February 1911, with envelope hand-addressed by Valentino included. In Italian, letter translates in part, ''...This Christmas, though, being in Turin, where I spent my vacation, I had the great pleasure of running into your brother Maulio, and asking him for news about you, learned that you were still in Perugia...Tell me what courses you have taken at the Institute and how things are going in the collegio where the students board and in school. Is Prof. Simoncini still the headmaster? How is he; is he married?...Please give my regards to all my old superiors and teachers...And the famous poet, what ugliness is he up to? (I do not say 'good' because he is not capable of doing anything good.)...This year I am in the Third Course, and this coming October I will graduate...You know, having finished this course easily, I will go to Reggio Emilia to the Royal School of Husbandry...I am going to Genoa, which is very close by, to learn English and Spanish at the Berliz School, and I go there 4 times a week. You can see my life is passing well here, in part because we are always in the open air of the fields; in part because we alternate work of this sort with study; in part because we have superiors who treat us like their sons, something that they certainly did not do in Perugia, whose little jail I will never forget! Here discipline does not take as its object physical punishment and windowless rooms (taking away our view) like there; but instead its purpose is to address the morals of the youths...and I assure you that it is much more persuasive than all the solitary confinement and all the windowless rooms and the 'no wine or fruit' in the world. Tell me if you are often sent to the jail or the room? Don't be ashamed to tell someone who is a veteran of this punishment - many times unjustly. But, it is better to think of a good present than a painful past. Speaking to you frankly, I am very pleased to have chosen this career that promises a happy future. If you only knew how much considerable satisfaction agriculture, and especially floriculture, gives when one understands it well and has passion for this profession. However I see, my dear Bruno, that I have bored you with my chitchat, and so it seems this letter is long enough. I forgot to tell you also that letters arrive here opened and read by the superiors...a thousand hearty handshakes from your ever dear friend, Rodolfo...Rodolfo Guglielmi...'' Six pages on three sheets, each measuring 4.25'' x 7''. Toning and partial separation along horizontal folds, else near fine condition, with neat legible handwriting by Valentino.
Rudolph Valentino Autograph Letter Twice-Signed From Agricultural School, Including With His Surname Rodolfo Guglielmi -- ''...how much considerable satisfaction...floriculture, gives...''
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