Dear reader,
What is a letter? The dictionary says this:
Letter (noun) – a written or printed communication directed to a person or organization, usually sent by post in an envelope.
But a letter is more, so much more. We have been writing letters to one another since around the fourth millennium BC and, while email and the telephone may make letter-writing less essential than before, I firmly believe we will continue to put pen to paper for the foreseeable future.
Letters provide a form of time travelling – they bridge the years in ink. I felt a sense of awe at reading the thoughts of those who experienced the pivotal moments in history – the fall of Rome, the start of a ‘small cult’ called Christianity, the eve of the Second World War, the threat of the Cold War.
They also give an insight into the everyday life, emotions, hopes, dreams, expectations, loves and disappointments of our forebears. They show that we have more in common with our distant ancestors than we might imagine.
How can you not love letters? I have boxes of old letters – and every so often I take them out, unfold them and re-read them. They remind me of the person I once was; the loves and losses I have suffered over the years; my own personal history captured in ink.
Researching this book was at times a very emotional experience. I knew many of the great letter-writers, but others came as delectable surprises. Tender love letters stole my heart. The tragic last letters from people facing death brought a lump to my throat. The correspondence between parents of sick or dying children made the mother in me weep.
Psychotherapists believe that writing letters – honestly and from the heart – acts as a powerful form of self-therapy; that it can bring clarity and a means of expressing emotions. Can you do that with an email? Perhaps. But somehow the act of putting pen to paper gives a further depth and meaning to the words.
In this book I didn’t just want to reproduce great letters – I wanted to investigate the whole subject of letter-writing: the materials that have been used over the millennia; the history of letter-writing and of the post; the curious and inventive forms of the letter that have emerged over the years. I also wanted to remind the reader how to construct letters for all occasions, with advice on how to set out both formal and informal letters.
And so I fell in love with letters all over again. As the Reverend T. Cooke asserts in The Universal Letter Writer, ‘Letters are the trade of life – the fuel of love – the pleasure of friendship – the food of the politician and the entertainment of the curious. To speak to those we love or esteem, is the greatest satisfaction we are capable of knowing; and the next is, being able to converse with them by letter.’
I hope you gain as much pleasure from reading this book as I did in writing it. And, please, let’s all do our bit to keep the gentle art of letter-writing alive.
Yours truly,
Liz Williams