17 February,2010 12:08 PM IST | | Agencies
Secret love letters written by former US President John F Kennedy to a Swedish woman are being put up for auction. The lettersu00a0were written to Gunilla von Post when Kennedy was an ambitious US senator in the 1950s.
Their love affair began before Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier, but continued afterwards.
Bidding starts at $25,000 (Rs 11 lakh), but they are expected to fetch much more. Von Post, now 78 years old, revealed her affair with the former US leader in a 1997 book, but the 11 handwritten letters and three telegrams have remained private until now.
The two first met on the French Riviera in the summer of 1953. Despite being only a month before Kennedy's marriage, they danced all night and parted with a romantic kiss.
Kennedy wrote his first letter to the Swedish beauty in June 1954. The following year the two secretly met at an old castle in Sweden. In the last letter in Aug 1955, Kennedy wrote, "My wife and sister are coming. It will all be complicated. All I have done is sit in the sun and think of Gunilla."
Chicago-based Legendaryauctions.com is taking online bids for the letters. They believe it should fetch up to $100,000 ( Rs 46 lakh).
