The Lost Art of Letter Writing

To The Letter - A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing author, journalist Simon Garfield writes that: "Letters have the power to grant us a larger life. They reveal motivation and deepen understanding. They are evidential. They change lives, and they rewire history.

"The world once used to run upon their transmission – the lubricant of human interaction and the freefall of ideas, the silent conduit of the worthy and the incidental, the time we were coming for dinner, the account of our marvellous day, the weightiest joys and sorrows of love. It must have seemed impossible that their worth would ever be taken for granted or swept aside. A world without letters would surely be a world without oxygen.

And now here we are."

To say that email and texting have dramatically changed the world of our interpersonal communication in such a short period of time is the understatement of all understatements, especially when taking into consideration the rich history of letter writing, from ancient Greek missives to pen-pal postcards of a 1960s childhood.

Holiday and birthday cards and one or two hand penned, end-of-year letters from far-flung writerly friends aside, it's not too often these days that anything much else arrives in the mail that causes the heart to lift in the way the sight of a familiar hand surely does.

Two pages into Simon Garfield's fascinating and inspiring book, I've already set one New Year's resolution and that is to write more letters. And mail them. The good, old fashioned way. One that as the author suggests, involves a human (or several) journey from door to door.

Pondering this, I'm thinking that it might be fun to start a letter-writing group for a regular meet-up here in Southern SoCo. Fountain pens, airmail paper, stamps, a shared hour for impromptu 'letters from Petaluma'. More to follow when I've had a few more thoughts on logistics. 

 

Comments

[Murray Rockowitz]

Sweet. I did this with one friend this past year, and hope to continue. It is a fun and funny experience, as well as, a lovely one! No copy left on my 'desktop', thus, no real certainty as to what did I write, and alas, no spell check..:). There is a certain vulnerability to just sending it off in the mail that is fascinating. When I mentioned to a friend that I had put off responding to a letter because I wanted to make the time to do so in a thoughtful and substantial way he replied, I have not sent a number of letters because of that. I sent, and was glad of it. Thanks for this post, have a great new year.

[plus.google.com/102207717595710136931]

Indeed! Have you ever read The Gift of a Letter by Alexandra Stoddard? I read that many years ago and absolutely treasured it. I've been meaning to dust it off and read it again.

The day after Christmas I took the day to be a bum...stay in my pajamas and read in it's entirety a book I received the day before as a gift. A Simple Act of Gratitude by John Kralik. An AWESOME book that inspires one to not only develop a sense of gratitude for things we so often miss, but also to WRITE more thank you notes.

Our current day of high-speed communications makes me long for handwritten missives all the more...

[frances rivetti]

Over the past few years I have taken to tucking letters and cards into the pages of the book I am reading at the time. I was leafing through an old favorite recently and out fell a lovely thank-you letter from an old friend who had been to visit. It took me back several years to where we were both at in our lives, really powerful, poignant stuff when handwritten and mailed (and saved)!