Old NME with a letter from a 17-year-old Stephen Morrissey.
www.flickr.com/photos/shaunusher/9192170114/

I have to say he was certainly a very precocious, intelligent and articulate 17 year old, if it was really his own work. I wonder if he got his librarian mother to proof read the first draft...[/center]

Young Steven Patrick regularly corresponded with the inkies around this time, usually the NME, but Sounds and Melody Maker too I think, usually pushing Sparks and The New York Dolls, and I'm sure I've seen another letter of his saying how great the Ramones were, so he was always a "mercurial" sort... he also wrote under the pseudonym Sheridan Whiteside (from "The Man Who Came To Dinner") for those wishing to trawl through their back-issues.