Elliott Smith’s biographer, Jamie Fisher, has found an unsent reply Smith wrote to a teenage fan who contacted him in 2000. The discovery gives Kirby Rock, formerly Kirby Van Amburgh, a long-delayed acknowledgement from the late musician and has encouraged her to return to writing.

Smith thanked Rock for her letter and urged her to pursue her creativity, signing the note with a heart. Fisher’s biography, Nobody Broke Your Heart, is due on 25 August, alongside benefit concerts supporting musician mental-health services and homeless-family shelters.