A three page, autograph letter signed by Getty on March 23rd, 1914, on hotel stationery from Lisbon, Portugal. He writes to a former girlfriend, “…Dear Baby, I have been writing day after day, hoping to hear from you but never a letter. I wrote you over a month ago from Granada addressing the letter to 64 Liberty Ave., Brooklyn. By some mischance I was so unfortunate as to lose your address and I am afraid you didn’t get my letter. I hope you get this, sweetheart. Darling, aren’t you coming over this spring as you promised? Let me know and I will meet you wherever you land. I spent about five weeks in Andalusia and had a very pleasant time although of course, I missed my little bed-fellow. I am leaving tomorrow morning for Northern Portugal seeing everything of interest and arriving in Madrid about the first of April. Then, unless I hear from you I will work south to Barcelona and then up to Paris. I do hope this letter reaches you, if I don’t get a reply showing that you have received this, I don’t know what to do, unless it is to get a letter forwarded to you through your brother on the New Jersey. I don’t see how I could have lost your address as I took particular care of it. If you get this letter please send me a cable just Getty, Cook, Madrid and the one word, loving. Then if you can come soon, give the boat’s name and date and I will be there to meet it, if it is 500 miles away, sweetheart. Better send cable deferred and then it won’t cost as much. I am so anxious to hear from my little blonde that I am counting the days. Your loving pal, Paul. My address for letter is c/o Cook, 30 Calle del Arenal, Madrid, Spain.” A fascinating and intimate letter written by the future billionaire as a 21 year old. Getty graduated from Oxford in 1913 with a degree in Economics and then traveled throughout Europe before returning to the United States in late 1914. His father lent him $10,000 to invest in the expansion of the family’s already successful oil properties. The first lot he bought in Oklahoma struck oil in 1915, and by the following year he had been made a millionaire. Getty steadily acquired and developed oil companies and properties all over the world and by 1966 he was a billionaire. Getty was famously miserly, even negotiating the ransom price of his kidnapped grandson in 1973, despite a piece of his grandson's severed ear being sent as a threat by his captors. Getty was also a notorious lothario, marrying and divorcing five times. This rare, intimate letter provides an exclusive glimpse into Getty’s life as a young man. With original, hand addressed envelope. $4,950.
