A new Elliott Smith biography has turned up an unexpected piece of the singer’s history, according to Stereogum. Journalist Jamie Fisher, who wrote Nobody Broke Your Heart, found an unsent reply Smith had written to a fan letter from a Dallas teen.
In 2000, Kirby Van Amburgh, who is now named Kirby Rock, mailed Smith a letter and never heard back before Smith died in 2003. In a new essay for the Huffington Post, Rock says Fisher later contacted her to explain that Smith had received the letter and written a response that was never sent.
Rock said Smith’s family still has her original letter, in which she praised his music and said his creativity had inspired her to pursue writing. Fisher also found Smith’s reply in the same box, with a message that thanked Rock for her letter and encouraged her to keep creating.
According to Rock, receiving Smith’s note 25 years later pushed her to rejoin a writing group she had left after having a baby. Fisher’s book, Nobody Broke Your Heart, is due out later this month from Penguin Random House.
