Prior to Apple’s conception in 1976, Steve Jobs was merely a regular guy sending the occasional letter to his former high school friends. Now, thanks to auction house Bonhams, one of those handwritten letters from 1974 is being auctioned off for over $200,000.
Addressed to Tim Brown, this correspondence was written by the late magnate when he was still a ripe 18 years old and it details his whereabouts as he was ironically secluded on the All One apple farm between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, a pair of cities adjacent to San Jose, CA. At this particular juncture, Jobs had been working for Atari in the South Bay, which was intended to fund the eventual mogul’s forthcoming trip to India. This heavy-hearted letter entails much of his aspiration to visit the South Asian nation by April to attend the Kumba Mela, a ceremonial event that only occurs every twelve years. While the letter from Brown addressed to Jobs had originally detailed many of the benefits intertwined with Zen Buddhism, the latter responded by saying that he was at a bit of a loss, though seeks to ultimately fulfill this ideology. To close the letter out, Jobs wrote, “I will end by saying I do not even know where to begin.” Surely, this is as introspective as it may get.
In what was rather a clear search of a sign, Jobs ultimately founded Apple two years following this letter, and the remainder is history. While this note is starting from $200,000, other ancient Apple relics can be found on Bonhams in the same auction, including a Macintosh Prototype, which is the earliest to appear even at auction.
