The 100 Most Difficult Business Letters You'll Ever Have to Write, Fax, or E-Mail
Bernard Heller. Harper Business, 1994.
From Amazon: "A comprehensive guide to writing diplomatic and sensitive business letters for every situation in the corporate world --from selling a terrific idea to smoothing over a damaging mistake-- includes a variety of examples and practical instructions."

The Art of Letter Writing: The New Guide to Writing More Effective Letters for All Occasions
Lassor A. Blumenthal. Perigee, 1986.
This book offers concrete hints on creating memorable letters for all occasions. You'll not only learn how to organize your thoughts, but you'll also pick up expert tips on avoiding cliches and errors in spelling and grammar.

Best Regards: Recovering the Art of Soulful Letter Writing
Ben Alex (Compiler), Peg Augustine (Editor). Abingdon Press, 1997.

Crane's Blue Book of Stationery
Edited by Steven L. Feinberg. New York: Doubleday, 1989

The Envelope Mill
Haila Harvey. Texas: The Summit Group, 1994.
I highly recommend this book! I have a copy of it and use it all the time. It comes with durable plastic templates that make creating envelopes fast and easy. Making envelopes is a project that is great for any age person and it makes for a unique surprise when you send people letters. (Although be careful what paper you use because my mother always looks at the inside of the envelope to see what I've been reading!)

Epistolary Practices : Letter Writing in America Before Telecommunications
William Merrill Decker. University of North Carolina Press.

Everyday Letters for Busy People : Hundreds of Sample Letters You Can Copy or Adapt at a Minute's Notice
Debra Hart May. Career Press.
From Amazon: "Helping create the sharpest follow-up to an interview, the kindest thank you, and the most heartfelt condolence letters, this practical guide aids in composing better and more creative letters."

Gift of a Letter
Alexandra Stoddard. New York: Avon Books.
I have this book in my collection and it's got wonderful stories about how to make letters feel more like "gifts". Very inspiring! It's a wonderful read for a letter-lover or a great gift if you're trying to convert someone who doesn't normally write letters.

Great Letters for Every Occasion
Rosalie Maggio. Prentice Hall Press, 1999.
From Amazon: "The bestselling author of How to Say It brings wisdom, inspiration, and fun to the art of letterwriting. Drawing from the author's personal collection of persuasive, moving, and humorous letters, this unique resource stresses the rules of form, tone, and word choice--and shows when to break them."

How to Write a Love Letter: Putting What's in Your Heart on Paper
Barrie Dolnick, Donald Baack. Harmony Books, 2001.

How to Write a Love Letter That Works: The Whens, Whys, and Hows of Expressing Terms of Endearment
Sidney Bernstein, Linda Tarleton. Sure Sellers, 1991.

How to Write Love Letters
Michelle Lovric. Publishers' Group West, 1995.

Letters for All Occasions: The Classic Guide to Social and Business Correspondence
Alfred Stuart Myers. Harper Collins, 1995.
Also available in hardcover.

Lifetime Encyclopedia of Letters
Harold E. Meyer. Prentice Hall, 1999.
From Amazon: "This comprehensive letter-writing reference can help anyone write clear and effective correspondence for virtually every business or personal occasion. Whether it's answering a customer's complaint, welcoming a new employee, apologizing for a mistake, requesting a favor, or any other situation that calls for written communication, this complete, one-volume resource offers the precise letter that clearly expresses the proper tone and the exact message for any situation." This book has almost 1,000 letters you can use as well as tips on how to start the letter as well as gracefully close it.

Pearls of Love: How to Write Love Letters and Love Poems
Ara John Movsesian. Electric, 1983.

Put Your Heart on Paper: Staying Connected in a Loose-Ends World
Henriette Anne Klauser. Bantam, 1995.

The Thank-You Book: Hundreds of Clever, Meaningful, and Purposeful Ways to Say Thank You
Robyn Freedman Spizman. Longstreet Press, 1994.
One of the most important things you can learn in your life is the value of writing thank you notes. I promise this will get you ahead in life no matter what career or lifestyle you have.

Victoria, The Pleasures of Staying in Touch: Writing Memorable Letters
Text by Jennifer Williams. Hearst Communications, 1998.

When Romeo Wrote Juliet: Your Inspirational Guide to the Art of Writing Love Letters
Brian Holtcamp, Paula Hilton, Jeff Reed. Stylus, 1994.

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COLLECTIONS OF LETTERS

84, Charing Cross Road (25th Anniversary Edition)
Helene Hanff, Frank Doel. Moyer Bell, 1995
A friend of mine really likes this book, but I've yet to read it. "Charming" and "delightful" are two words that are used over and over in reviews that I read about it. It's on my list of things to read and if you like letters then it should be on your list, too. Oh, and if this matters to you... it's also a true story.

800 Years of Women's Letters
Olga Kenya (Editor), P.D. James. Penguin USA, 1994.

The Book of Abigail and John, Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784
Edited and with an introduction by L.H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, and Mary-Jo Kline. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975

Bring me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971

C.G. Jung: Letters 1906-1950
Selected and edited by Gerhard Adler, Carl Gustav Jung, and Aniela Jaffe (Editor), and R.F.C. Hull (Translator). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973

C.G. Jung: Letters 1951-1961
Selected and edited by Gerhard Adler, Carl Gustav Jung, and Aniela Jaffe (Editor), and R.F.C. Hull (Translator). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973

The Collected Letters of D.H. Lawrence
Two volumes, edited by Harry T. Moore. New York: Viking, 1962

The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: 1903-1917
Katherine Mansfield, Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1984.

The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: 1918-1919
Katherine Mansfield, Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: 1919-1920
Katherine Mansfield, Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: 1920-1921
Katherine Mansfield, Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Katherine Mansfield is an English author who is considered a masterful short story writer in the spirit of Anton Chekhov.

Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Little, Brown and Company, 2000

Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf
Edited by Joanne Trautmann Banks. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, 1989.

Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959
Edited by Robert H. Ferrell. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983

Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean
Hilary Liftin, Kate Montgomery, Vintage Books, 1999
One friend went to Africa after joining the Peace Corps. One friend stayed in Manhattan. Both had their challenges and typical life ups and downs, but from very different settings. Their correspondence is documented in this book. There is also a companion web site where you can read letters. I have this title on my "books to buy" list!

The Durrell-Miller Letters, 1935-80
Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Ian Mac Niven (Editor), New Directions, 1988

Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters
Thomas H. Johnson. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1958, 1986.

The Element of Lavishness
Sylvia Townsend Warner, Michael Steinman (editor). Counterpoint Press, 2000.
This is a collection of letters between English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner and her long-time editor William Maxwell. Over the lifespan of their friendship they wrote approximately 1,300 letters, sometimes writing even two a day. If you're interested in learning more about this book, read the detailed review of it in the New York Times.

Flaubert-Sand: A Correspondence
Gustave Flaubert, George Sand, Alphonse Jacob (Editor), Francis Steegmuller (Translator), and Barbara Bray (Translator). Harvill Press, 2000

For Your Eye Alone: The Letters of Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies, Judith Skelton Grant (Editor). Viking Press, 2001
Robertson Davies was a prolific Canadian novelist and playwright. This book is the second volume of his correspondence. His correspondents include John Gielgud, Raymond Massey, Margaret Atwood and John Irving. If you're interested in learning more about this book, read the short review of it in the New York Times.

Henry Adams: Selected Letters
Henry Adams, Ernest Samuels (Editor). Belknap, 1992

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters, 1929-1932
Anne Morrow Lindbergh. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973

The Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen
Penelope Hughes-Hallert. Collins & Brown Limited, 1990.

Jane Austen--Selected Letters, 1796-1817
Edited by R.W. Chapman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985

Jane Austen's Letters
Jane Austen, Deirdre Le Faye (Editor). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997

Lawrence Durrell & Henry Miller: A Private Correspondence
E.P. Dutton, 1963

A Letter of Consolation
Henri J. M. Nouwen. New York: Harper & Row, 1982

Letter to the Alumni
John Hersey. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970

Letters Between Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry
Cherry Hankin. New Amsterdam Books.

Letters from Collette
Selected and translated by Robert Phelps. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1980

Letters from Father: The Truman Family's Personal Correspondence
Edited, annotated and with Introduction by Margaret Truman. New York: Arbor House, 1981

Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963
Sylvia Plath, selected and with commentary by Aurelia Schober Plath. New York: Harper & Row, 1975

Letters of Anton Chekhov
Edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. New York: Viking Press, 1973

Letters of Archibald MacLeish, 1907-1982
Edited by R.H. Winnick. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983

Letters of C.S. Lewis
Edited by W.H. Lewis, Walter Hooper. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1966

Letters of E.B. White
Compiled by Dorothy Lobrano Guth. New York: Harper & Row, 1976

The Letters of Edith Wharton
Edited by R.W.B. Lewis and Nancy Lewis. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988

The Letters of Frida Kahlo: Cartas Apasionadas
Compiled by Martha Zamora. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1995.

Letters of George Sand and Gustave Flaubert
Translated by Stuart Sherman. Chicago: Academy Chicago, Ltd., 1929, reprinted 1979

Letters of Great Artists, Vols. I and II
New York: Random House, 1963

Letters of Henry Miller and Wallace Fowlie, 1943-1972
Henry Miller and Wallace Fowlie. New York: Grove Press, 1975

The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vols. 1-2, 1814-1843
Edited by Andrew R. Hilen. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1967

The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vols. 3-4, 1844-1865
Edited by Andrew R. Hilen. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1972

The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vols. 5-6, 1866-1874
Edited by Andrew R. Hilen. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1983

The Letters of John Cheever
Benjamin Cheever. Simon & Schuster, 1988.

The Letters of Lewis Carroll, 1837-1898
Two volumes, edited by Morton H. Cohen and Roger L. Green. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979

Letters of Ranier Maria Rilke
1892-1910, 1910-1926, translated by Jane Bannard Green and M.D. Herter Norton. New York: W.W. Norton, 1945

The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963

Letters of the Century: America, 1900-1999
Edited by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler, 1999

The Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922
Edited by Valerie Eliot. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Edited by Mark Roskill. New York: Atheneum, 1984

The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol. 1
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1977.

The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol. 2
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1978.

The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol 3
Edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautman. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1989

The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol 4
Edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautman. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1981

The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol 5
Edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautman. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1989

The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
Edited by Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell A. Leaska. New York: William Morrow, 1985

Letters on Cezanne
Rainer Maria Rilke, Claire Rilke (Editor), Joel Agee (Translator) New York: Fromm International Publishing, 1985

Letters to a Young Poet
Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell (Translator). New York: Random House, 1984

Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen
Fay Weldon. New York: Taplinger, 1984

Letters to His Son Lucien by Camille Pissarro
Paul P. Appel. Originally published in 1944, revised and enlarged in 1972. Layton, Utah: Peregrine Smith, Inc.

Letters to W.B. Yeats, vols. 1-2
Edited by Richard J. Finneran, George Mills Harper and William M. Murphy New York: Columbia University Press, 1977

Love Letters
Peter Washington. Knopf, 1996.
A collection of over 200 love letters from over several centuries, historical and fictional.

Love Letters: An Illustrated Anthology
Antonia Fraser. Contemporary Books, 1989.

Love Letters of a Lifetime
Dana Reeve. Hyperion, 2001.
This book was compiled by the wife of Christopher Reeve who wrote the forward and includes a letter of her own written to her husband after his accident. Besides the letter from Reeve, the letters are written by everyday people, not by the famous.

Madame de Sévigné: A Life and Letters
Frances Mossiker. Columbia University Press, New York, 1985.

My War: A Love Story in Letters and Drawings from World War II
June Feldman and Tracy Sugarman. Random House, 2000.
This sounds like a fabulous book. This review from the New York Times gives a nice description of the book and why it's only now being published.

Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson
Emily Dickinson, Ellen Louise Hart, Martha N. Smith. Paris Press, 1998.
If you love Emily Dickinson, you should check out this book. It's a collection of Emily's letters to her friend Susan who was also her sister-in-law. The forward to the book explains Emily's and Susan's relationship and why the letters are only now being published and examined. This is a look at Emily that's not been seen before and shows her as something other than the virginal spinster hermit that she is reputed to be.

The Oxford Book of Letters
Frank Kermode, Anita Kermode. Oxford University Press, 1996.
This was recommended to me by someone who does a lot of reading. I was looking at the reviews it got and it sounds fabulous. Over five centuries of letters written by famous people as well as ordinary people. From the reviews, it sounds as if the Kermodes did a fabulous editing job. This will be a good pick if you are looking for a general letter collection. The link goes to the paperback version, but there is also a hardback edition if you're like me and want books that really last.

The Prettiest Love Letters in the World: The Letters Between Lucrezia Borgia and Pietry Bembo 1503 to 1519
Translated by Hugh Shankland. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, 1987

Rilke and Benvenuta: An Intimate Correspondence
Edited by Magda von Hattingberg, translated by Joel Agee. New York: Fromm International Publishing, 1987.

Selected Letters of E.M. Forster, 1879-1920
Edited by Mary Lago and P.N. Furbank. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1983

The Treasury of the World's Great Letters: From Ancient Days to Our Own Time
Edited by M. Lincoln Schuster. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940

War Within and Without: Diaries and Letters, 1939-1944
Anne Morrow Lindbergh. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1980

Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills
Winston Churchill, Mary Soames, Clementine Churchill. Houghton Mifflin, 1999
This is an unbelievably wonderful, romantic book. I fell in love with it the minute I started browsing it. You MUST look at this book if you love letters. It will keep you busy for hours (and you'll think fondly of it when you're daydreaming, too).

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FICTIONAL LETTERS

Ashes and Snow
Gregory Colbert.
I ran across this one quite by accident when someone told me about the Ashes and Snow web site. While there looking at the beautiful imagery, I discovered there was also an epistolary novel available. (Be warned, the novel has NO images that you'll see on the web site and is quite pricey.) The novel takes place as the fictional traveler visits exotic locations such as India and Ethiopia and send letters back to his wife. While this will not be a book for everyone (most of us do have a budget), it's worth mentioning here in an effort to be comprehensive.

The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy
Nick Bantock. Chronicle Books, 1994
As much as I love books, I generally don't buy a lot of them to keep. There are so many books to read that I don't want to read them over and over, so mostly I take books out of the library. The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy is one set that I snapped up without hesitation. I *HAD* to own it. There was nothing getting in my way. (Actually, there was something in my way, a woman in a cloth overcoat, but I pushed her down and leaped over her writhing body to get the very last set on the shelf.) The books are not only romantic (it's a love story), but they are pretty, too. Lots of pictures and drawings, full color throughout. Inside are pasted envelopes and letter facsimilies so you can open envelopes, unfold letters, peek inside things... major letter-voyeur rush on this one. I go back to them over and over because I love them so much. They are small books and make great gifts, but buy the whole set if you're going to get any of them. (I don't want you to think I'm a complete fanatic, but I do have to tell you that I had two birds and named them Griffin and Sabine.)

Other People's Mail: An Anthology of Letter Stories
Gail Pool. University of Missouri Press, 2000
A collection of epistolary fiction from 17 different authors such as Alice Munro, A.A. Milne, Gail Godwin, and Nadine Gordimer. BOOKLIST described the anthology as "entertaining and moving" and "well worth reading". KIRKUS REVIEWS says the stories are "captivating" (as epistolary fiction often is). It will definitely give you a voyeuristic thrill to peek inside.

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MOVIES WITH LETTERS

84 Charing Cross Road (1987)
Starring: Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins.
Based on a true story. Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins) are on two separate continents but carry on a two-decade relationship via letters. It's a comedy-drama that have gotten rave reviews from friends of mine, although they do say that the book is better than the movie (but then isn't that most always the case?)

Cast Away (2000)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt.
A majorly FedEx branded movie, but it works well into the story. This is sort of a stretch to call this movie a letter writing movie, but it does have an element of "mail will save you" theme. I won't say how in case you've not seen it. But it *is* interesting to see some of the inner workings of overnight delivery and Tom Hanks is top-notch as always.

Frontier Pony Express (1938)
Starring: Roy Rogers.

The Letter (1940)
Starring: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall.
Based on a Somerset Maugham story. Bette Davis' character (Leslie Crosbie) is accused of murder and attempts to plead self-defense. However, the widow of the murdered man claims to have a letter that contains information about the killing. Crosbie is determined to get her hands on that letter. (Wouldn't you want to if you were in her position?)

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan.
Synopsis from Amazon: A charming but philandering concert pianist receives a letter from a strange woman the night before he is due to fight a duel for offending a lady's honor. Through the letter, he comes to understand for the first time the undying love that one woman felt for him through the years, despite his cavalier attitude and broken promises.

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
Starring: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas.
Plot summary from The Internet Movie Database: The elegant, accomplished Addie Ross has left town for good. Her parting gesture, delivered to her three "best" friends as they left for a day trip [on a boat full of children], was a letter informing the women that she had absconded with one of their husbands -- which husband, she doesn't say. So each of the three wives spends the day reminiscing about the ups and (mostly) downs of her marriage -- wondering if hers is the husband who has flown the coop.

The Love Letter (1999)
Starring: Kate Capshaw, Tom Everett Scott, Ellen Degeneres, Tom Selleck.
I just love this movie. It's sweet and charming. It's a tale of a mysterious love letter, unsigned, that turns everyone's world upside down because each person that reads it is sure it's meant for them. They spend the rest of the movie running around trying to figure out who wrote it to them. It's a definite must for anyone who loves letters, or for that matter, loves love.

The Love Letter (1998)
Starring: Campbell Scott, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
If you liked "Somewhere in Time" (with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour) you will probably enjoy this movie. It's in the fantasy genre and about a man who purchases a desk only to find that suddenly he is getting letters through it from a woman who was alive a hundred years before. Wonderful bit of intrigue, romance and wistfulness.

Pony Express (1953)
Starring: Charleton Heston, Rhonda Fleming.
A Western set in the 1860's about the founding of mail routes into the Western regions of the United States. It also involves historical figures such as Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok.

Pony Express Rider (1976)
Starring: Robert Totten, Hal Harrison, Jr.
A man joins the Pony Express in 1861 to find the man who killed his father.

Il Postino (The Postman) (1995)
Starring: Massimo Troisi.
From Amazon reviewer Tom Keogh, "Based on true events, Troisi plays a shy postman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret). Through Neruda's example and tutelage, the hero learns to think of his Italian fishing village in lyrical terms, as well as how to talk to women and even find the strength to take his political stands. Sweet as it is, the film finally pushes beyond its charming borders to become an even more complex and poignant story about the pain of growing into one's destiny."

The Postman (1997)
Starring: Kevin Costner, Will Patton.
A lot of people didn't care for this movie, but I really liked it. Maybe it was the subject matter, but I know I certainly enjoyed it more than most people that I talked to. Costner is a drifter who unwittingly ends up re-instating mail delivery in a post-apocalyptic world. While it borders on overly-dramatic for the subject matter, it will stir the patriot in you. I love patriotic movies.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Starring: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan.
This is the film that was remade into "You've Got Mail" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Jimmy Stewart works in a small shop in Budapest and is looking for romance. He and his co-worker, who hate each other, turn out to be carrying on a romance by mail, but don't realize who the other is.

There Goes a Mail Truck (1999)
A film for children that shows how the U.S. postal system works including postal airplanes, mail trucks, warehouses, postal branches, and mail delivery. There is also some historical information on the Pony Express.

You've Got Mail (1998)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan.
This is a fun remake of the 1940 film "The Shop Around the Corner", starring Jimmy Stewart (see above). There's very little about the movie that is the same except for the fact that the two main characters hate each other, but don't realize they actually are pen pals who are in love (only in this 1998 version it's email, not snail mail). Hanks and Ryan are both great in this movie. It's a sweet and fun love story.

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