[SAUDI ARABIA]: TALAL BIN ABDULAZIZ AL SAUD (1931-2018) Saudi Arabian Prince, politician, dissident, businessman and philanthropist, who strived for a national Constitution and was leader of the Free Princes Movement in the 1960s. A good archive of six A.Ls.S. and seven T.Ls.S., Talal, (one of the T.Ls. unsigned), thirty-four pages (total), 8vo and 4to, Ryiadh, April 1951 - May 1956, all to Maria Marras, in English (occasional grammatical and spelling errors retained in the transcripts). The letters, largely social in content, chart the romantic love affair between the Prince and his Italian girlfriend, which appears to have began with contact through amateur radio, in part, 'Really I was very surprised and buzzled when I heard your sweet voice as I was looking for you long time ago, and was trying to catch you on the air for several times……I was very pleased and happy to have this enjoyedable QSO with you. I am very glad for my being able to catch you. I am 22 years of age, unmarried and my name is Talal. I think you will be more interested to know that I am living here very happy with my father and mother in the Royal Palace in Ryiadh…..I have enclosed my QSL Card (still present) herewith together with my Photo (also still present) with which I hope you will be contented…..At last, as I have promised you through the Micraphone that I will pay another visit to Italy especially for you….' (14th April 1951), 'Although I have met you very frequently on the air, and although your manner has been kind and friendly towards me, I do not flatter myself that you are aware of the sincere affection I entertain for you, an affection which now emboldens me to write to you and to tell you that the hope of the gaining your love has been for the last two days in my mind. Should I be so fortunate as to win your regard and love, your happiness should be my one thought and care and you should not regret having entrusted it to my keeping. I shall await your answer with the greatest impatience. If you can give me hope, hasten to put an end to my doubts, and make me the happiest of men…..I was always looking for you and was trying to catch you on the air…..On that day when I heard your sweet voice, my heart jumps from its place and flew with your voice on the air, and I am sure that you are now holding my heart with both of your hands….you are the most lovely and beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life, although I hav'nt yet seen you; be sure that I fell in deep love with you from the first moment I got you on the air……the temperature of my love is increasing terribly, as when I heard your sweet voice, I was about to get mad especially when you began to give some Arabic words as you have a very sweet and excellent pronunciation….' (16th April 1951), 'I am in receipt of your precious letter….and if you were with me when I fixed my eyes on your photos you would consider me as a mad man…..I was not able at all to collect my thoughts….as I began to give cries and shouts and was unable to control myself. Very nice and wanderful photos. Yes, I imagined you are a beautiful and wanderful girl….You have a chin that is small in size if resolute in form, and a mouth that is not noticeably soft and week because it is conspicuously soft and pretty. Your nose is delicately aquiline and very subtly and finely modeled, and you look out upon the world with steady grey-blue eyes. Your abundance of gold-red hair flowed back very prettily from your broad forehead and over your delicate ears and you have that warm-tinted clear skin that goes so well with reddish hair. You have a very dainty neck and from these conditions I imagine that the long slender lines of your body are full of the promise of riper beauty…..Regarding my visit to you, believe me I am waiting for the permission from my father H. Majesty the King, and as soon as I get this permission….be sure that I will fly to you….' (8th May 1951), in the next letter recounting a passionate dream, with dialogue between himself and his lover, and further adding 'We gone to my garden. While we are passing by some beautiful blossoming flowers, a green rose jumps up and speaks in a musical tone, ''What a beautiful lovely girl you have, black blue eyes with half sleep looks, curly hair, charming libs and well built body. Congratulations that you knew how to choose your lady''. (Pauss) I replied, ''Yes, she is my lady and for me alone''. The rose, ''Kiss her, yes kiss her and do not let anyone to take her from you''. (Kisses). Then back to my shack room….' (13th June 1951), 'Love is not an easy word to express. When somebody loves, it is not on his own wish but it is an inside feeling concerning only the heart and no body has got a control on his heart. Therefore when I say I love you, it means that I do and it comes out from the bottom of my heart….Believe me that you are the first one who has wounded this heart with the black arrow of your lovely eyes. My heart was closed with a very strong lock, but when I heard your sweet voice, I felt something else that changed my life…..' (22nd July 1951), 'I am still considering our love as a blossoming rose, and that I have much time to enjoy this rose…..Darling, the only thing I want from you is not to think and consider that it is a beautiful flower indeed but very frail. Excuse me to say that you are mistaken in all what you have said. It is a beautiful dream our meeting together in somewhere, but I am satisfied to wait and see if dreams ever do come true…..' (25th March 1952), 'When we left you we took the boat to Cairo. There we spent one month during which period we saw all the Italian magazines which have been translated and what was advertised about me and you was shameful according to my being. It was foolish of them to write such things which proved that the newspapers men are impolite and interfearers in other affairs. Don't you think so dear love? No body in the world can do what he likes or can enjoy himself without meeting any troubles. I never had an idea of the Italian press being so worst and always writing nonsence. What we can do is to keep scilent and say nothing towards this matter. It was very nice and beautiful to be able to see you…..I cannot express my feelings towards our wanderful meeting at your place. Our dreams were fulfilled, but in a cruel way which we don't like. The only important matter is, I saw you…..I have changed my name on the air for private sole reasons which I cannot say to anyone….' (16th October 1952), 'Your question about my feelings after our short meeting has got a wanderful effect on my heart…..I was thinking before our meeting and in Rome, of what our meeting would be. Is it a meeting of between two lovers or is it just between two Radio Hams and nothing more or less. Alas, it was as I said in the second belief…..what you were doing was forcing me to follow the family formalities. Sweety, I was not expecting that from you, I was expecting that Maria will meet me in the airport alone, take our dinner in one of the restaurant there and you should have made a program for my stay with you in order to spend beautiful time alone without the interferance of others. But as I didn't find anything of the sort, I urged my getting back to Rome, being truthful I must have to do that…..As to what was written about me in the newspaper, I beg you to forget it as it is something passed which needs no more discussion. I was not surprised of their being aware of my visit to you, because there were many curious paper men in the hotel where I was staying, so they knew my arrival in Sardinia…..' (6th November 1952), 'My beloved, you are my dream and I shall always be yours….I have a single track mind and it all leads to you. Each night before I snap off the lamp I throw you a warm kiss and bid you goodnight. Then I go to my bed and hold the pillow and again say - goodnight my dearest love - I miss you and want you….' (14th December 1952), 'Sweetheart, when I read your words I feel very warm as if I am holding you between my arms impressing you very close to me and whispering how much I do love you….love means so very much to me, but being apart makes me unhappy. We must be patient until dreams are fulfilled….' (13th April 1953), '…..we talked about my departure to Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and then to the French Reveira. I asked you to meet there according to the promis between us. But you answered that you have two things that forbid you to come….The first thing is of my future….The second is your trip to the States. Infact the first cause is not true, as there are many things that I should explain to you in order to make you contented……Anyhow, in case you will not leave to the States, I ask you to promis me to come to the Reveira, to meet each other…..' (19th April 1953), 'The latest orally connection after a long absence has affected me very much, I hope our relation will be more strong in the future…..Regarding my marriage, I descrip it to you as follows: You know very well that since a long time I was thinking to marry. Before a year & few months I was in Lebanon, and accidentally I met a Lebanease Lady, Egyptian Origin, immediately I was in love with her, therefore, I decided to marry her, and when she accepted, we have done the necessary wedding formalities just after few months of our first meeting. Indeed I am very pleased with her and always we are anxious to have children…..I donot expect that my marriage will be invincible of standing a relation between both of us, this is in my mind……in case of your agree to continue our relation, I request you to please do that by a very secret ways, I mean not to let anybody whatever he is, to know, for the apprehension of my wife to know, otherwise, perhaps unpraiseworthy will happen…..If I know that you are agree of my above stated suggestions, I will continue and I will be as you know me before' (3rd February 1956), the final letter, sending a typescript copy of the 3rd February 1956 letter, appears to end the relationship, 'So, till that time nothing I can say, except, GOD BYE and Million Kisses' (20th May 1956). Many of the letters are on attractive personal printed stationery and most are accompanied by the original envelopes. Together with two telegrams (received copies) from the Prince to Maria Marras, an A.L.S. by Saad Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the Prince's cousin, in Arabic (accompanied by an Italian translation) and also including seventeen photographs of various sizes (the largest 9 x 14), most featuring Prince Talal in various poses (some showing him hunting with hawks), nine of which are either signed by him, sometimes to the verso, or annotated in his hand, and several signed photographs of other family members including Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1924-2015) King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia 2005-15. Further including a group of newspaper clippings relating to the romance between the Prince and Maria Marras, the majority from Italian journals, reporting on the Prince presenting her with a gold plated radio antenna etc. Some light overall age wear, a few minor tears and some light creasing to the photographs, G to generally VG, Qty.