To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing by Simon Garfield is not a stellar book but it is enjoyable. A sort of history of letter writing in letters, it covers ancient Greece and Rome through the modern day when email and texting have sent written correspondence into a death spiral.
The standard format of letters as we know them today has a distinct evolution. Back before the official post when very few letters were written because few could afford it or were even literate, letters did not begin, “Dear Stefanie,” but more like this:
Hilarion to his sister Alis, very many greetings — and to my respected Berous and Appolonarion.
Asking after health, cajoling children to behave, asking a parent for money, these were all topics of letters even from the beginning. They just tended to be formal and short. Garfield suggests Cicero was the first famous letter writer and from him, his letters were first published very long ago, the modern letter begins to emerge.
Old letters tell us much not only about history but about the writers themselves and their relationship to their correspondents. When writing a letter, social rank was reflected both in the salutation and in where the letter began on the page. The lower you were in rank and the higher the recipient, the further down the page you had to start your letter. Wealthy powerful people could begin their letters at the top of the page but a humble supplicant had to start below the middle of the page. Later, when where the letter began wasn’t so important, wealth was indicated by how much unused space there was in the letter. The more white space, the richer you were.
When the official post finally came into existence, postage was paid by the recipient. People without a lot of money often worked out codes they would put on the outside of the letter. When the letter was delivered, the recipient would see the code at a glance and then refuse the letter thereby receiving the message without having to pay for it.
The history of the post is a fascinating subject in its own right and Garfield, being a UK writer, focuses on the development of the post in Britain. He does branch out to eventually include a bit in the United States but he sadly neglects to mention anything about the Pony Express or Wells Fargo stage coaches, both important delivery systems in the U.S. that have been so romanticized it is a crime to leave them out of a history of the post entirely.
Once literacy rates increased sufficiently and mail delivery became reliable, letter writing became a huge and important social link as well as duty. Letter writing manuals began to appear and were immensely popular. Of course the best letters are not the ones that follow the rules of the manuals, but for people who were new to letters or not well educated, the manuals were very helpful. Now of course today we still have letter writing manuals but they focus more often on business letters and to these we have added manuals on how to write emails.
To the Letter has chapters on famous correspondence including one on why Jane Austen’s letters are so dull (a combination of who her audience was and family members wishing to preserve Austen’s reputation — so many of her letters were burned). There are chapters on letters at auction and letter collectors, on the evolution of the post one of which includes some fascinating information about the Dead Letter Office and the sorts of things people used to mail, the evolution of letter writing and what constitutes a good letter, love letters, and finally email.
Throughout the book is also threaded the wartime correspondence of Chris Barker and Bessie Moore. Their letters began in September 1943 when Chris was stationed in Africa. Chris and Bessie used to work for the post office and Chris was deployed during the war as a keyboard operator. When Chris went off to war and started writing Bessie they were merely friends. Bessie had a boyfriend, their mutual friend Nick. During the course of the war and the correspondence between Bessie and Chris, it is wonderful to watch their letters change from friendship to a real romantic postal relationship. Some of Chris’s letters are rather bold and steamy! Their romantic correspondence has a happy ending. After the war they married and had a long and happy life together. Their letters were preserved by their children and have now been passed on to a permanent archive for safekeeping.
What I didn’t enjoy about the book was how it seems to cover the usual ground. Letters are a dying art, what will become of us and history when we no longer have written correspondence? To be sure, it is a concern I share, but like the wailing over the end of printed books, it starts to grate on one’s nerves after awhile. The most annoying thing, however, was the poor editing. The first time it happened I excused it as blooper. The second time I got a bit grumpy — sloppy! The third time I got really angry and all the following times mistakes popped up my anger would flare. The mistakes aren’t simple typos, misspellings or dropped or repeated articles or prepositions. No, they are sometimes major blunders where it was clear there was revising that had been done and not all of the old was deleted so that it becomes a jumble with the revision. Mistakes like this one:
That Madame de Sévigné possessed a unique talent was acknowledged not only by those with whom she corresponded, but by those with whom she corresponded
Now imagine something like this every 60-70 pages of a 445 page book and you have an idea about why I was so darn annoyed. While it was a big detraction, I did still enjoyed the book overall and have added several books to my TBR list of both collections of letters and books about letter writing and the history of the post.
If you are a letter writer yourself or enjoy a good collection of letters, you will very likely find pleasure in To the Letter
I’m a letter writer from long ago. Thank for your review of a book I thought about reading. But your comments suggested I’d be better off writing a letter, instead of reading a book about them. I’m especially like writing letters to writers who I admire, but regrettably are no longer alive. Dear Leo, Dear Ernest, Dear Anton. That sort of thing.
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Richard, I always enjoy reading books of and about letters, I find them inspiring even when they have annoyances. But by all means, write a letter instead! Have you ever written a letter to some you admire who is still alive and then sent it?
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Yes. A long time ago, probably before you were born, I wrote a letter to Auturo Vivante who wrote beautiful short stories for the New Yorker. I received a very cordial reply. More recently I wrote a letter to its editor, David Remnick telling him I didn’t like what he was doing to the magazine. I received a less than cordial reply. I once wrote a letter to a current book blogger/librarian, who replied very sweetly.
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Very cool you got a reply from Vivante. I can understand Remnick not being so very cordial, but at least he replied! And what a nice blogger/librarian to write you a letter 😉
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I hadn’t heard about this one but am definitely interested in the subject. I used to write a lot of letters but I’m lucky if I send a couple out in a year nowadays. Maybe that should be part of my New Year’s resolutions – more letters! I’ll keep this one in mind for the postal reading challenge 🙂
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Iliana, that’s the story of many people, I used to write a lot of letters. It is a refrain that has been said all during the history of letters actually which is pretty amusing if you think about it. In the last two years I have begun writing more letters and I have enjoyed it very much. It is also an excuse to buy more fountain pens and bottles of ink and washi tape 🙂
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I have this one in mind for next year as well — though the sloppy editing might get a bit annoying for me as well…
I’ll certainly be interested in the Dead Letter Office; that’s something that’s always fascinated me.
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Melwyk, you know, when I came on the sloppy editing I would get mad and then forget about it within a few pages until it happened again, so don’t let it stop you reading the book because I think you would really like it. The Dead Letter Office is really fascinating.
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I’m on the hold list for this at the library and really looking forward to reading it – though not to the poor editing! The poor author, it must be so frustrating to see your work messed about this way.
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Claire, I felt a little bad for the author about the editing too and while the sloppiness was annoying I quickly forgot about it between incidents so it doesn’t ruin the whole book.
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Don’t even get me started on the lost art of letter writing. I’ll drone on forever. I’ve never thrown away a written letter someone sent me. They are stored away in a trunk, some going back to the 50s. They all tell wonderful stories and remind me of friends and family – some I’ve lost and some I gratefully still have. I’d like to read this one.
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Grad, I think in a fit of decluttering about ten years ago I threw out the letters I got from my childhood overseas pen pals. I regret it every time I think of it. I began writing letters regularly to friends and family when I went off to college and I haven’t stopped since. I have kept every one I have received. They are precious. I think you will really like this book!
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There was a lot of publicity for this when it first came out in the Uk and I meant to requite it from the library then. I’m afraid that there is nothing I like more than reading other people’s letters. I forget the library request however and now I’m wondering whether or not that was a good thing. I get so annoyed about poor editing that it may not be a good idea to start a new year off with something that is guaranteed to raise my blood pressure to boiling point.
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Alex, the book hasn’t gotten much press in the US which helped me be first in line for it at the library. I think since then people have been finding out about it because now the book has a hold queue. The poor editing is annoying and intruded on my pleasure in the book, but it didn’t ruin it completely, so don’t let it stop you since you like reading other people’s letters!
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As an editor, I usually feel for the editor when I hear people complain about poor editing because I know how easy it is for even a careful editor to let mistakes slip by and because I never know what the manuscript was like to begin with. But I think this would annoy me, too. It sounds like it didn’t get proofed after corrections were made. That’s such an essential step, but one that I think people are tempted to cut or do quickly because sometimes you hardly catch anything, but it’s so essential because if the person keying in corrections has on off day, you get a mess.
As for the book’s topic, I remember I used to love to get letters, but I find I don’t miss them that much now. What I do miss is personal e-mails from one individual to another about nothing in particular–the e-mail equivalent of a letter. I used to have several regular e-mail correspondents, and I loved getting e-mails from them. Although I do love reading letter collections. I often find them more interesting and revealing than biographies. That part of the book sounds interesting.
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Teresa, I can be forgiving for a typo or two, heck I make them too. But when the mistakes are as bad as they were in this book, it was really cringe worthy. I know editor’s work hard and have a gazillion things to do and no one is perfect, but these should have been caught.
Letters in the mail and letter equivalent emails seem to be disappearing which is too bad. Though there are still people who continue the practice. I agree that letters can sometimes be more revealing that biographies. I think you can really get to know a person better through their letters. That part of the book was quite good. I have a new appreciation for Ted Hughes now because of this book.
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I had hoped to read more books of correspondence last year–maybe I can do better this year. This sounds like it has some good stuff in it–though the errors might get a little old for such a long book! I will at least have to see if I can find it at the library and take a look at it. It would be fun to find a book where you can read a letter a day–now that would have been a fun project to plan for–which of course I didn’t! 🙂
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Danielle, yes, good stuff in here in spite of the errors. And there is a good bibliography. Those are always dangerous! Reading a letter a day would indeed be a fun project. I think you should take it up sometime! 😉
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Jane Austen dull? Who said that? Seriously, her letters do have a lot of detail only of interest to her family. But if you read them slowly as my JA group has been doing, you find a lot of gems, which others have done as you often find quoted from her letters in those little gift books and in articles about her.
I liked Teresa’s comment about editing. I write a letter every week to a friend in California. We could email but we both love writing … Actually, I have to admit we type it but we still print it out and put it in an envelope and post it. I love waiting for her letter. But, I know I proofread it and make corrections and sometimes, in a rush, don’t check it again. That’s disastrous because quite often my correcting has left another error. Infuriating! My mother is an editor. While I’m careful, I don’t think I have the mindset for such meticulousness. I admire editors.
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whisperinggums, heh, when I was reading that chapter I thought of you the whole time! I think people who embark on reading Austen’s letters expecting them to be like her books are the ones who toss them away and declare them dull. I have plans to read them one of these days and, as you say, there are plenty of gems in them as evidenced by the little gift books.
A letter a week? That’s dedication! Nothing wrong with typing them either. I like to write by hand because it gives me an excuse to play with my fountain pens and bottled ink.
I think editors as a whole do a great job considering how much time they must spend looking at manuscript after manuscript. This one though, I wonder if it might have been rushed in order to get it out before Christmas.
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I think like many things these days, quality control is being squeezed so things like that final proofread/edit don’t always get the attention they need.
As for letters, I love fountain pens too, but my handwriting went to pit some years ago. But most I sort of use this letter record as a diary. They don’t contain exactly what a diary might but they do provide a rough chronicle of my life over the last 20 years!
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I suspect you are right about quality control. Where there used to be skilled proof readers there is now spell check.
I am always willing to decipher handwriting though I admit that some friends’ handwriting is like trying to decipher a particularly tricky code so I pretend I am working at Bletchley Park 😉
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Very good, Stefanie. I have heard that people aren’t as good at deciphering writing as they used to be because they both don’t write much themselves and don’t read that of others.
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