Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Stolen book of John Keats' love letters are returned to their rightful owner Nearly 40 years ago, a book containing eight letters John Keats wrote to his fiancee Fanny Brawne disappeared. They resurfaced last year and, this week, returned to their rightful owner. National Stolen book of John Keats' love letters are returned to their rightful owner April 23, 20265:26 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Marc Rivers , Mallory Yu Stolen book of John Keats' love letters are returned to their rightful owner Listen · 2:42 2:42 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5793956/nx-s1-9742619" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Nearly 40 years ago, a book containing eight letters John Keats wrote to his fiancee Fanny Brawne disappeared. They resurfaced last year and, this week, returned to their rightful owner. Sponsor Message
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
You'll seldom read more romantic words than those the poet John Keats wrote to his neighbor and soon-to-be-fiancee Fanny Brawne.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRIGHT STAR")
BEN WHISHAW: (As John Keats) I almost wish we were butterflies and lived but three summer days. Three such days with you I could fill with more delight than 50 common years could ever contain.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
That was Ben Whishaw playing Keats in the 2009 film "Bright Star," about the relationship between the poet and Fanny Brawne. The words came from the first of nearly 40 letters Keats wrote to Brawne between 1819 and 1820.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRIGHT STAR")
WHISHAW: (As John Keats) When you confess this in a letter, you must write immediately and do all you can to console me in it.
SUMMERS: That first letter, along with seven others, were bound into a book once held at the Long Island estate of the Whitney family. In the 1980s, those letters disappeared.
DETROW: They stayed missing until last year when a man attempted to sell the book to a rare bookstore in New York City. This week, after a long authentication process, the letters have been returned to their rightful owner. Keats' fans and scholars are celebrating the find.
CATHERINE PAYLING: They are some of the finest love letters ever written.
SUMMERS: That's Catherine Payling. She was the curator at the Keats-Shelley House in Rome for 15 years.
PAYLING: They are reflective of this youthful passion that he was feeling. They are timeless in the way that they convey a very pure love between young people.
SUMMERS: That love was ultimately doomed. About three years after meeting Fanny Brawne, Keats would die from tuberculosis.
DETROW: Brawne waited over 12 years to marry, and she held on to the letters until her death in 1865.
PAYLING: Unfulfilled love. You know, I think that's an important part of the myth, that they never married. Their relationship was never consummated. So I think that that makes our sense of the emotion even more profound.
SUMMERS: John Keats was only 25 years old when he died. Catherine Payling says, though he's one of the most important writers in the English language, Keats didn't live to see his reputation flourish.
PAYLING: The lines that he wanted written on his gravestone - here lies one whose name was writ in water - tell us very clearly that he had no hopes that his work would be remembered.
DETROW: Luckily, Keats was wrong on that front. We have his poems and his letters to show for it.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHAN AHLEN'S PERFORMANCE OF DEBUSSY'S "TWO ARABESQUES, L. 66: I. ANDANTINO CON MOTO") Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1166:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(321)},321:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(82)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1139),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(101),c(103),c(1140),c(144),c(1141),c(238),c(48),c(1142)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1166,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();