Letters by Duchess of Windsor, Prince to Be Published

NEW YORK — Just hours after the death of the Duchess of Windsor at the age of 89, a New York publisher announced Friday that it will publish her early private correspondence with Edward, Prince of Wales, who renounced the throne to marry “the woman I love.”

Heretofore unknown to the public, the letters between Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee who became the Duchess of Windsor, and the prince were prepared for publication more than a year ago. In accordance with the wish of the duchess, however, they were withheld from publication until after her death.

“Wallis and Edward: Letters 1931-1937”--purporting to chronicle first-hand “the most famous love affair of the century”--will be published June 6 by Summit Books.

Embargoed from disclosing the specific content of the correspondence, the publisher said the letters “completely alter the commonly held view of the duchess’s role in Edward’s abdication” and reveal “what really transpired between the ex-king and his family.”

Summit said the core of the book will contain more than 75 letters exchanged by the lovers themselves from the time of their “improbable” first meeting in 1931 until their marriage at the Chateau de Cande in 1937. The letters are said to chart Edward’s overwhelming passion for the then-Mrs. Simpson, thus “illuminating the mystery of their attraction.”

Also included in the collection are letters from the future duchess to her aunt, Bessie Merryman, written while she was still married to Ernest Simpson. Merryman was the chaperon in 1934 when Mrs. Simpson was Prince Edward’s guest on a yachting trip in the Mediterranean. Simpson was not present on that trip.

Of that voyage, the duchess wrote in “The Heart Has Its Reasons,” her 1956 memoirs: “Often, the prince and I found ourselves sitting alone on deck. Perhaps it was during one of these evenings off the Spanish coast that we crossed the line that marks the indefinable boundary between friendship and love. Perhaps it was one evening strolling on the beach at Formentor in Majorca.”

In assembling and annotating the letters, writer/historian Michael Bloch spent six years of research in the Windsor Archives in Paris. Bloch was appointed by the duchess’s friend and legal representative, Maitre Suzanne Blum.

The letters have been authenticated by Dr. Julius Grant of Hehner & Cox in London. Grant is the handwriting expert whose report revealed the Adolf Hitler diaries to be a forgery. His authentication of the “Wallis and Edward” letters was based on handwriting, signatures and the age and watermarks of the stationery.

No financial details were disclosed by Summit for the book, which it purchased last year from an English agent. Editing and art design were then completed, with the understanding that the book would not be published until after the duchess’s death.

“We brought it as far as we could,” a Summit spokesman said. “We were prepared to wait for however long.”