A handwritten letter by Steve Jobs featuring his thoughts on Zen Buddhism will go up for auction – and could sell for $300,000

OSTN Staff

Steve jobs apple
The letter, dated February 23, 1974, was written just a day before Jobs’ 19th birthday.

  • A handwritten letter by the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs is up for auction, per Bonhams.
  • The British auction house said the note could sell for up to $300,000.
  • The letter features Jobs’ thoughts on Zen Buddhism and his desire to travel to India.

A letter written by the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he was 18 years old has been put up for auction.

Britsh auction house Bonhams will sell the single-page letter on November 3. It is estimated that the letter will sell for up to $300,000, as CNBC and other outlets reported.

According to Bonhams, the letter was postmarked February 23, 1974, which was the day before Jobs’ 19th birthday. He sent it to his childhood best friend Tim Brown.

At the time, Jobs had dropped out of college and was living in a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains after returning from a stint working on an apple farm, according to the auction house.

The note entails Jobs’ thoughts on Zen Buddhism and his desire to travel to India to attend the Kumba Mela (also known as Kumbh Mela), a Hindu pilgrimage and religious festival.

As a teenager, Jobs was in search of the meaning of life, per Bonhams.

Jobs begins the letter by responding to a previous note from Brown writing in all lower-case: “tim i have read your letter many times / i do not know what to say. many mornings have come and gone / people have came and went / i have loved and i have cried many times. / somehow, though, beneath it all it doesn’t change – do you understand?”

“I will end by saying I do not even know where to begin,” Jobs concludes, before signing off “Shanti,” which means “peace” in Sanskrit.

“The letter gives a fascinating insight into the private life of a fiercely private man,” Adam Stackhouse, director of Bonhams’ history of science and technology business, said in a press release. “This is particularly special as no autograph letters from Jobs have appeared at auction before, and certainly no material as revealing and insightful as this,” he added.

The letter is part of the History of Science and Technology sale and will also include an Apple Macintosh prototype, along with a first-generation iPad prototype.

Recently, an Apple II manual signed by Jobs sold for nearly $800,000, CNN reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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