Elliott Smith Biographer Discovers His Unsent Response To A Teen’s Fan Letter
Later this month, Penguin Random House will publish Nobody Broke Your Heart , a deeply sourced Elliott Smith biography by the journalist Jamie Fisher. It sounds like a great read, and it has yielded at least one unexpected twist for a longtime Smith fan. The post Elliott Smith Biographer Discovers His Unsent Response To A Teen’s Fan Letter appeared first on Stereogum .
A deeply researched Elliott Smith biography by journalist Jamie Fisher, set to release later this month, has revealed an unexpected discovery. In 2000, a Dallas teenager named Kirby Van Amburgh, who is now Kirby Rock, penned a fan letter to the late musician. She had never received a response and assumed that Smith never read her letter.
However, Fisher recently informed Rock that not only did Smith receive her letter, he also wrote back. The letter, discovered alongside Rock's original correspondence, expressed Smith's happiness upon reading her words and encouraged her to continue pursuing her passion for writing. Smith's personal note, signed with a heart, conveyed his admiration for her creativity and urged her to "kick ass."
The letter has inspired Rock, now a writer for a marketing research company, to rejoin a writing group she left three years ago. The biography, titled Nobody Broke Your Heart, will be published on August 25 via Penguin Random House.
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