General Letter Writing
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Einstein's Letters to Franklin D. Roosevelt
A series of four letters Einstein sent to Roosevelt, detailing
his concerns for the construction of the new atomic bombs.
Henry James' Letters and Correspondents
Henry James was a prolific letter writer with over 1,000 recorded correspondents.
The University of Nebraska has created a web-accessible database which tracks
his letters, where they are held as well as information about his many
correspondents.
Letters of Jane Austen
An online collection of the letters of Jane Austen.
Old British Letters
A collection of British Letters ranging from 1717 to 1859.
Private Art
A collection of World War II letters to and from the homefront.
Robin Flies Again
The women of the Class of 1903, Goucher College, participated in a round robin of
letter writing that lasted almost 50 years. The college has a web site devoted
to this collection of letters.
Three Girls Grown Up
An ongoing collection of letters between three women who have been friends since
college. Funny, sad, painful, insightful, joyous. It begins with some past
reminisces from college and moves on into the present. A work in progress!
Wolf Lewkowicz Collection
A collection of letters written between 1922 and 1939, and translated
into English from Yiddish.
Letter Projects
The Epistolary (Letter) Project
Heather Piper obtains letters that are being sold on eBay, in antique
shops and in other venues and attempts to reunite them with their
previous owners. A fascinating and worthy cause!
The Dead Letter Office
What would you say if you were dead? Imagine your life is over and you
have one more chance to say something to the world. This is your place
to do it. Check it out for sad, witty, wise, wonderful letters from
people you will never meet.
The Legacy Project
The Legacy Project's mission is to honor American military veterans and soldiers
by preserving their wartime letters. Their web site includes information on how
to preserve letters and has links to actual letters from wartime.
Letter A Day
Rich is writing one letter each day and waiting for responses. He posts
the outgoing and incoming letters on this web site. It's good for a daily
dose of letter writing!
300 Love Letters
A fun and interesting project created by a woman named Asia. She has written
letter after letter to people and mailed them to complete strangers. While
I think this is completely and utterly weird and strange, I also really love it.
Love Letter Collection
An ongoing collection of love letters. Add your own!
Open Letters
This is perfect if you don't have a lot of time to get your voyeuristic
letter-writing fix. (It's actually perfect in a lot of other ways, but I'm
trying to appeal to the hurry-up-i'm-busy-give-me-something-right-now-right-
in-the-vein-right-here-slap-slap-slap-quickly-i'm-late generation. My
apologies to the rest of you.) It's a daily thing, but also a weekly thing.
Every day a different letter is posted on the site. They are open, they are
honest, they are moving, they are funny, they are real. Go see, you must.
Operation PAL
Operation PAL was started by MarineParents.com to support active duty Marines
who have become ill or injured while in combat or upon return from combat.
This web site has a list of Marines and Sailors who need your thoughts, your
kind support and prayers. Even if you can only send one letter, click on one of
these soldiers' names and read about the sacrifice they have made for us as
Americans. Write a card today!
Fictional Letters
The Correspondence of Professor J.W. Worthy with Ancients and Moderns
The letterwriting form often lends itself to a nice style when it comes to expressing
oneself. This writer talks to famous and historical figures about a variety of topics.
If you like this particular literary style of writing, you should also check out
Mark Twain's
Letters from the Earth.
Ghostletters
Ghostletters are letters written as historical or fictional characters.
If you love writing creative letters in the guise of someone else, you
should check out this group. It looks like lots of fun!
Letters from the Earth
Not real letters, but Mark Twain is so good we can pretend the letters
are real.
The Civil War
Civil War Diaries
Yahoo's list of links to diaries from the Civil War.
Civil War Letters and Diaries
A long list of links to letters written during the Civil War.
Love Letters from the Civil War
Virginia Tech has a collection of love letters from the Civil War in
their holdings. I love Civil War letters. Everyone spoke "so prettily"
back then!
The Sullivan Ballou Letter
This is my personal favorite of all the letters I've read from the Civil War.
The writing is beautiful, poetic, fabulous. It was used with superb music in
the Ken Burns documentary of the same topic. (And that documentary is a MUST
SEE if you're a fan of the Civil War.)
Authors and Letters
Austen on Epistolary
Jane Austen was a huge fan of letter writing. She covers the topic in
her writings and she herself wrote hundreds of letters in her lifetime.
This site talks about Austen's view on correspondence and describe
letter writing and mail of the period.
Eight or Nine Words About Letter Writing
Advice from Lewis Carroll about letter writing.
Paraphernalia
Lady's Pocket Book or Letter Case c. 1780-1800
A few photos of a silk pocket book or letter case carried by
ladies of bygone days. (Personally, when I go traveling, I
have a monstrously sturdy black canvas zipper thingy with
lots of pockets on it. It's small and perfect for all my
letter writing stuff. Not elegant, but way more durable
than silk.)
Crane & Company
Very fine papers and stationery.
Miscellaneous
Correspondence: The art of making a connection
Many people claim that email is hastening the demise of letterwriting.
This site says that's not true, that email can still be as artful
as letters from the past. See what you think.
Love Story in a Pocket
This is a Real Audio clip from NPR (Feb 10, 2001). The
description from the NPR site reads, "Lisa talks with Jeanne Thaggard of
Austin, Texas. In the 1920's, Thaggard's parents met through the exchange
of message in a shirt pocket, sent from the Montgomery Ward shipping
center. (8:30)"
News Stories About Letters