The details of unnumbered face - to - facebreakupsmay be lose to metre , but plenty of others are immortalized in writing . From Agnes von Kurowsky ’s soft Dear John note to Ernest Hemingway to Oscar Wilde ’s virulent missive to Lord Alfred Douglas , here are nine of the best separation letter in history ( even if some of the pairs scarce stayed parted ) .
1. Agnes von Kurowsky to Ernest Hemingway
The inspiration for the romance in Ernest Hemingway’sA Farewell to Armswas his own affair with Agnes von Kurowsky , a 26 - year - old Red Cross nurse he meet while recuperate from a shrapnel injury in Milan , Italy , during World War I. A few months afterHemingway — who was only 19 at the time — return to the U.S. to find a place for them to live on together , he receive aletterin which von Kurowsky not only ended their human relationship but also confess that the time aside had given her the distance she take to actualise that she ’d credibly never been in love life with him .
“ I know that I am still very partial of you , but , it is more as a mother than as a lulu . It ’s alright to say I ’m a tike , but , I ’m not , & I ’m getting less & less so every twenty-four hour period , ” she wrote on March 7 , 1919 . “ I tried hard to make you understand a moment of what I was thinking on that tripper from Padua to Milan , but , you move like a spoiled child , & I could n’t keep on injure you . Now , I only have the courage because I ’m far away . ”
Toadd insult to hurt , von Kurowsky tell him that she ’d soon be marrying someone else ( an Italian millionaire , though she did n’t remark that ) . “ And I desire & pray that after you have thought things out , you ’ll be able to forgive me & start a wonderful career & show what a human being you really are , ” she wrote .
2. Marlon Brando to Solange Podell
Solange Podell was a French cabaret terpsichorean and actor who metMarlon Brandobackstage after a 1947Broadwayperformance ofA Streetcar Named Desire(in which Brando played Stanley Kowalski , a office he ’d reprise for the 1951 movie adjustment ) . The two struck up a kinship , which Brando end sometime in the tardy forties via aletterwritten in pencil ( and wear a few spelling errors ):
“ In order that you wo n’t reckon me a complete boor , I am writing you this letter of the alphabet to explicate that because of an quicksilver , flighty , fly - by - night , temperment I bid not to humiliate and degrade your sentiments by seeing you only at my mood ’s conveinence . Please have this letter with an undetermined heart as it is compose with fourthright sincerity . I ’m sorry I could not have sample hard to be less self lenient and theirwith , a footling more compatable . My intuitions were flawlessly scroupulous but my emotions , unfortunately , mentally ill . I will remember you with philia , regard , and appreciation . When we encounter in France ( perhaps in October ) I trust my behavior will be a trifle more adult . ”
Brando sign on off “ with warmth ” and a addendum asking that Podell pass along his “ genial acknowledgements ” to her female parent , “ if she ’ll accept them . ”
3. Edith Wharton to W. Morton Fullerton
In April 1910,The Age of InnocenceauthorEdith Whartonpenned one hell of a “ What are we?”missiveto her on - again - off - again beau , journalist W. Morton Fullerton , who was collapse her emotional lash with his mercurial changes in behavior .
“ I do n’t know what you want , or what I am ! You write to me like a lover , you treat me like a fooling acquaintance ! ” she write . “ I have stick out all these inconsistency & incoherences as long as I could , because I have sex you so much , & because I am so meritless for things in your life that are hard & wear down … Only now a sense of my worth , & a sense also that I can bear no more , piddle me publish this to you . indite me no more such letter as you post to me in England . ”
Wharton wasespecially upsetbecause she would have been fine with friendly relationship , but Fullerton ’s mixed messages preclude them from settle into any kind of comfortable moral force . “ My lifespan was better before I know you . That is , for me , the sad conclusion of this sad year . And it is a sulphurous matter to say to the one being one has ever have intercourse d’amour , ” she write .
4. Jackie Kennedy to R. Beverley Corbin Jr.
While at Miss Porter ’s School in Connecticut during the mid-1940s , a teenagedJackie Kennedy(then Bouvier ) dated a Harvard University student name R. Beverley Corbin Jr. Herlettersto him , usually address to “ Dearest Bev ” or “ Buddy favourite , ” shed light on her feelings about embarkation school ( which she detest ) and about Bev himself , whom she came to bring in she did n’t really love .
In one alphabetic character from January 20 , 1947 , she wrote , “ I ’ve always thought of being in love as being willing to do anything for the other person — lust to grease one’s palms them bread and not bear in mind live in Siberia with them — and I ’ve always thought that every minute away from them would be Hades — so looking at it that [ direction ] I think I ’m not in love with you . ”
She kept up correspondence with him after that , but the relationship eventually fizzled , and in 1951 she quash any potential drop for a rekindling of it when she told him she was engage to someone else . “ What I desire for you is for the same thing to bechance as quickly and as surely as it did with me . It will when you least expect it , ” she wrote to Corbin . ( Shecalled offher own meshing after just a few calendar month and tied the knot withJohn F. Kennedyin 1953 . )
5. Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay
BeforeMary Wollstonecraftmarried William Godwin and gave birth to futureFrankensteinauthorMary Shelley , she had a daughter with Gilbert Imlay , an American author and diplomatist . They never formally splice , and Imlay ’s constant travel , infidelity , and generally poor treatment of Wollstonecraft effectively killed their relationship . In March 1796 , Wollstonecraft sent her former lover what could aptly be described as an 18th - one C edition of a “ Delete this number ” text .
“ You must do as you please with deference to the child.—I could wish that it might be done soon , that my name may be no more mentioned to you . It is now finished.—Convinced that you have neither regard nor friendship , I disdain to utter a reproach , though I have had reason to opine , that the ‘ longanimity ’ talked of , has not been very delicate.—It is however of no consequence.—I am glad you are satisfied with your own doings , ” shewrote . “ I now solemnly assure you , that this is an eternal leave-taking . ”
6. Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera
In 1953,Frida Kahlowas lying in a hospital bed trying to quick terminate aletterbefore Doctor amputate her sphacelus - infect leg . She was writing to her husband , Diego Rivera , who hadcarried onaffairs — include one with Kahlo ’s own sister , Cristina — throughout their relationship . ( To be fair , Kahlo was n’t close to him either . )
“ Let ’s not fool away ourselves , Diego , I turn over you everything that is humanly potential to offer and we both know that . But still , how the hell on earth do you manage to seduce so many woman when you ’re such an slimy son of a bitch ? ” she wrote . “ I ’m pen to allow you experience I ’m release you , I ’m amputating you . Be happy and never attempt me again . I do n’t want to get a line from you , I do n’t need you to hear from me . If there is anything I ’d enjoy before I fail , it ’d be not have to see your f***ing horrifying mongrel face wandering around my garden . ”
She then readily contradicted herself by signing off like this : “ honorable bye from somebody who is crazy and vehemently in love with you . ” The twodidn’t cutting tiesafter Kahlo ’s military operation .
7. Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had been married for near a decennary when Taylor break away things off , and Burton immortalized his reaction in aletterdated June 25 , 1973 . “ So My Lumps , ” it commence , “ You ’re off , by God ! I can scarcely trust it since I am so unaccustomed to anybody leave me . But reflectively I question why nobody did so before . ”
He vacillates between praising her ( “ Do n’t forget that you are plausibly the bully actress in the world . ” ) , criticize himself ( “ I am a smash up bore-hole and why you ’ve stuck by me so long is an denotation of your loyalty . ” ) , and paint a portrait of what his biography will look like without her .
“ I shall miss you with passion and fantastic rue , ” he enunciate . “ You may rest assure that I will not have affairs with any other female person . I shall gloom a lot and stare morosely into out of the question distances and act a minute — probably on the stage — to keep me in liquor and butter , but primarily and above all I shall write . ”
TheWho ’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?stars officiallydivorcedin June 1974 , but ended upremarryingin October 1975 ( and then got divorced again less than a year later , though they remained tight until Burton ’s death in 1984 ) .
8. Anaïs Nin to C.L. Baldwin
Writer Anaïs Nin and episodic poet C.L. “ Lanny ” Baldwin were both splice when they began an function in 1944 , but by later summertime the following year it had started toself - destruct . Baldwin accuse her of being jealous and call her “ a form of dog in the manger with men , [ wanting ] them all to sit at your feet and be yours , all yours and only yours . ”
Nin , who debate Baldwin super insecure both as an artist and as a man , much laughed off his claims , explaining that she only assay affection elsewhere after realizing their own human relationship was “ bushed ” and Baldwin could “ never enter [ her ] world”—one of Passion of Christ , making love , and the art that comes from it . “ go out with you was like going out with a priest , ” she wrote in a letter of the alphabet postmarked August 25 , 1945 .
9. Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas
In early 1897 , asOscar Wildewas come on the end of his two - twelvemonth prison sentence for “ rank indecency ” ( having relationships with man ) , he write a55,000 - word letterto his fan Lord Alfred “ Bosie ” Douglas , who had n’t kept up correspondence with Wilde during his captivity . Wilde rag Douglas for his insatiable need to control , which Wilde feel he himself had been subsumed by .
“ roll in the hay that by making a scene you could always have your agency , it was but natural that you should proceed , almost unconsciously I have no incertitude , to every overabundance of vulgar violence . At the terminal you did not know to what destination you were hurry , or with what aim in view . Having made your own of my genius , my willpower , and my fortune , you require , in the blindness of an inexhaustible avaritia , my entire existence . You lead it , ” Wildewrote . “ Your wan face used toflush easilywith wine or pleasure . If , as you read what is here written , it from sentence to fourth dimension becomes scorched , as though by a furnace - blast , with shame , it will be all the better for you . ”
The letter is a searing squelch , and without historical context you ’d take over it was a expiry knell for the relationship . But before long after Wilde ’s tone ending from prison house , he and Douglas were back on . “ Everyone is furious with me for go back to you , but they do n’t realize us , ” Wildewrotein August 1897 . “ I feel that it is only with you that I can do anything at all . Do refashion my ruined life for me , and then our friendly relationship and love will have a unlike signification to the world . ”
Moreover , Douglasclaimednot to have known about Wilde ’s prison alphabetic character for years . Upon his liberation , Wilde turned it over to his friend Robert Ross with operating instructions to make a copy and send the master to its intend recipient . According to Douglas , Ross never did ( thoughnot everyone believe that ) . What Ross emphatically did do was release extract from the missive several years after Wilde ’s death under the titleDe Profundis .
“ If I had received the letter , the whole path of subsequent history might have been change , ” Douglaswrotein his 1929 autobiography . “ My outrage at Wilde ’s fantastical lies and misrepresentations , and his abuse and insults , would perhaps have cured me once for all of my calf love for him , which still survived so strongly in those days . Again , on the other hand , it is possible , and indeed probable , that I would have forgiven him . ”
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