required reading

We read a post we loved recently by Kathy Zadrozny at Behind the Curtain. In an ode to all things letterish, she pointed us in the direction of some great epistolary opportunities. First comes a challenge from Felicia Sullivan, urging everyone to write as many letters as possible this month, some to be displayed in her comments section. But why not share the love? Submit your writings to our call for letters as well! Are there any books that inspire you to write letters? The second item to win our admiration is this recommended reading list from Letter Lover: Letter Insights and Anthologies:

- Epistolary Practices: Letter Writing in America before Telecommunications by William Merrill Decker (University of North Carolina Press, 1998) - Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters from the End of the Affair by, Anna Holmes (Caroll & Graf Publishers, 2002) - The Book of Love: Writer’s and Their Love Letters Edited by Cathy N. Davidson (Penguin Group, 1992) - The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time Edited by David H. Lowenherz (Crown Publishers, 2002) - Famous Letters: Messages and Thoughts That Shaped Our World Edited by Frank McLynn, (A Reader’s Digest Book, 1993)

A Lifetime of Letters. . . - Thomas Jefferson on Leadership: Executive Lessons from His Life and Letters Edited by Coy Barefoot (Plume, 2002) - Mary Todd Lincoln—Her Life and Letters Edited by Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner (Knopf, 1972) - The Love Letters of Mark Twain (Harper, 1949) - The Letters of Emily Dickenson Edited by Thomas H. Johnson and Theodora Ward (Belknap Press of Harvard, 1958) - The Selected Letters of James Joyce Edited by Ellmann, Richard (The Viking Press, 1966, 1975) - Letters of E.B. White Edited by (Harper & Row, 1976) - Letters home by Sylvia Plath: Correspondence 1950-1963 Edited by Aurelia Schober Plath (Harper & Row, 1975) - Dear Pussycat: Mash Notes and Missives from the Desk of Cosmopolitan’s Legendary Editor by Helen Gurley Brown (St. Martin’s Press, 2004)

Letters Between Lovers - The Letters of John and Abigail Adams (Penguin Classics, 2003) - Henry James and Edith Wharton: Letters: 1900-1915 Edited by Lyall Harris Powers (Scribner, 1990) - Katherine Mansfield’s Letters to John Middleton Murry 1913-1922 (Knopf, 1951) - Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills (Mariner Books, 2001) Edited by Mary Soames - Witness to My Life: The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone De Beauvoir, 1926-1939 (Scribner, 1992) - A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren by Simone de Beauvoir, (New Press, 1999) - A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953 (Harvest/HBJ Book, 1989) - I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan (Random House, 2002)

[Photo by v.max1978]