When Artists Write Letters
How did this happen? How could I have missed this fantastic collection of letters about cricket? In my quest to understand just why letters are so important a mode of communication, surely letters to the editors of the Daily Telegraph on the subject of cricket would have provided some insight.
Shaun Usher understands the art of letter writing — as any fan of his site, Letters of Note, knows — and now his book by the same name brings all that art to the printed page. Letters of Note, the book, is beautiful, large-size, fabulously produced, and above all, it is…
Dostoyevsky’s first novel, Poor Folk, published when he was just twenty-four years old, is completely composed of the letters exchanged…
On August 2, 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was playing poker at a saloon in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, in the town of Deadwood. A former buffalo hunter named Jack McCall (nicknamed “Broken Nose Jack”) walked in to the saloon, sidled up beside Hickok, drew his…
I have read many, many collections of letters but Dear Lupin, Letters To A Wayward Son, is extraordinary. Roger Mortimer was a racing correspondent for years, and in retirement kept himself busy writing, going to the races, and having drinks and dinners and lunches with all…
Savoring, Reading, Saving Letters
Way back in 1766, English poet and Cambridge professor Thomas Gray wrote to his good friend, the Reverend Norton Nichols.
In his letter, he advised Nichols that mothers are a rare commodity, and should be cherished: “I have discovered a thing very little known…
Geraldine Brooks wrote nonfiction before she moved over to fiction, writing her Pulitzer prize winning novel March, along with Year of Wonder, People of the Book, and Caleb’s Crossing. I love the writing of Brooks and when a Facebook friend recommended I read Foreign Correspondence…
