A rare letter written by Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter has come up for auction. The one-page letter written by Ledbetter on Royal Hotel letterhead dated 14 January 1949 from New York City is to the singer’s manager Marjorie Fairbanks.

 
According to the Boston auction site organising the sale Lead Belly had recently been released from hospital after finding himself unable to walk but was nevertheless sanguine about his chances of recovery going by this letter. “I got a doctor that is fixing me up I’m walking near perfect now,” he writes. The auction runs through until 11 March.

• Also of interest:  Van Morrison, Jools Holland, and Eric Burdon are among the headliners playing the Royal Albert Hall’s Lead Belly Fest this summer.

Lead Belly top and the letter above