Yours Ever

It's been very stamp-oriented around here lately, but, by-and-large, we here at the L.W.A. are mostly interested in the contents of the envelope rather than the envelope itself. My father often writes to me on yellow legal pad sent in white business envelopes with American Flag stickers and I love them just as much as any of the other letters I receive even if they don't make as much of a splash on Flickr.

Letters, much like books, should never be judged by their covers, but that isn't a problem for Yours Ever by Thomas Mallon. The cover is a perfect lure for an lover of letters. Nor does the book disappoint. From the flap copy:

"Yours Ever explores the offhand masterpieces dispatched through the ages by messenger, postal service, and BlackBerry. Thomas Mallon weaves a remarkable assortment of epistolary riches into his own insightful and eloquent commentary on the circumstances and characters of the world's most intriguing letter writers. Along with confessions and complaints and revelations sent from battlefields, frontier cabins, and luxury liners, a reader will find Mallon considering travel bulletins, suicide notes, fan letters, and hate mail- forms as varied as the human experiences behind them."

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was full of information without being pedantic or feeling trivial. I marked many parts in the book {you can see my little flags in the photo} which I wanted to remember. I very much enjoy how Mr. Mallon introduces each chapter and interweaves the old systems of communication with the new ones. I wish there were more letters from everyday people in the book rather than "celebrities", but all-in-all it's a fascinating look into what the front cover calls "the human experience."

I received a copy of Yours Ever as a holiday gift, but Random House also offered me a copy for review. We're holding a contest for that copy. Leave a comment with your favorite famous letter writer and we'll pick a winner at random on Friday, April 23d. 

 

P.S. UPDATE: The winner is commentor # 14: Krissy! Thanks everyone. {Winner chosen by Random.Org}

Comments

[Trish]

Helene Hanff & Frank Doel for reality correspondants but for fictional it's always gotta be Griffin and Sabine!

[Jamie]

I was here to say Griffin and Sabine. I love Nick Bantock and that entire correspondence.

That series is amazing.

[edina]

I really enjoy Rainer Maria Rilke's letters in Letters to a Young Poet

[Julie]

I always like Jolene Siana's letters to Nivek Ogre.

[Anna]

I've always been a huge fan of JRR Tolkien's letters, if only because he fits so well with his fiction (and I love his handwriting!)

[Ashley B.]

I just devoured the letters of William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner. They are collected in the book "The Element of Lavishness"-- worth a read for anyone interested in mid-20th century literature, life, and an incredible friendship that spanned many years.

[Julie]

I love reading old letters from my nana to her husband overseas during the war. The family letters of love and history tucked in an old book for safekeeping - those are my favorite letters.

[Rashel]

Personally I loved reading the letters my father worte to my mother before they were married.My mother had recently moved to the U.S while my father was still living in Russia, The letters are really cute.

[CMN]

Hmmm... favorite famous letter writer? That's tough! The first name that came to mind was the late President Ronald Reagan. I was just a 'tween when he was President and I remember being fascinated by a newspaper article about how the Secret Service was investigating reports of "letters from the President"... that turned out to be actual letters he was writing in the evening, using pale apple green stationary. I just thought that was SO COOL!

[danielle]

offhand, i would have to say my favorite famous letter writer is colette! i know that's too obvious and easy, but mon dieu, j'aime la colette! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette

[kimberly]

famous: sylvia plath, not-so-famous: my friend, leah, & i exchanged letters in high school/college and i LOVE to go back to read the dramas of yesteryear :)

[Ledeaux]

Who can overlook Lazlo Toth (AKA Don Novello of Father Guido Sarducci fame), author of those infamous letters guised as sincere customer/consumer concerns? See The Lazlo Letters (ISBN 1-56305-285-7), Citizen Lazlo! (ISBN 1-56305-182-6), and From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters (ISBN 0-7432-5108-3).

[Hollyking]

Put me down as another fan of Tolkien's letters.

- Brendan

[Krissy]

My favourite famous letter writer would have to be Lord Byron. I was given a copy of The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals a few years ago as a present and I loved it.

My favourite letter writers of all time though were the people who sent me news from home when I was living in Vancouver for a few years. Those letters were more precious than anything because I was so homesick.

[Beth]

The ever great TJ, a.k.a. Thomas Jefferson. Especially his long-correspondence with John Adams... epic and amazing.

[Bee]

Famous letter writer: C.G. Jung in his correspondence with Freud. It is intriguing to see his letters change from being full of adoration to being more critical and see Freud's answers change accordingly. It is one thing to read about their relationship in secondary literature and another to follow it as it was being written.

Though I'd be horrified if anyone ever published my letter exchanges, I must admit. The privileges of the non-famous. ;-)

[Kadi]

Famous letter writer?

John Keats. Hands down. High Romantic with passion, intrigue, humor, and intelligence. Keats will always provoke thought and passion... and I must admit, had I been a friend of his during the Romantic period... I don't think I would have thrown a thing of his away either! Well done comrades of Keats!

[Ravensmarch.wordpress.com]

I know his fame has spread in the past quarter century or so, but I don't know whether The Old Man of Providence, H.P. Lovecraft, counts as "famous" to non-weird people. He was definitely a letter writer of the most committed stripe, though, and gets my vote.

[Kathryn]

Rainer Maria Rilke, I love letter to a young poet!

[Kaylee]

I am a fan of John and Abigail Adams--such a unique view into their lives!

[Dawn]

I, too, have found the Adamses letters fascinating...especially seeing how much stock he put in her opinion in a time when we have been led to believe that women were far inferior to their men. But my absolute FAVORITE letters I found at an antique store in Glendale many years ago...a request from a young lady to her friend to borrow a newly printed tome that she had not yet been able to get her delicate hands on...it was brought by currier, the letter said, and the same currier stood in waiting for her quick reply.

[Jan]

Only one favorite famous letter writer? Guess I'd have to say Flannery O'Connor's (The Habit of Being) but CS Lewis is in really close 2nd place.

[Alice]

Famous Favorites: The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett (so amazing, so hard to find); also My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. MacMillan from L.M. Montgomery.

Personal Favorite: My Dear Mr. P: Letters between a favorite writer and me.

[Cathy]

HMMMM, a hard choice. I would say my Great Grandfather's letters home from the Civil War--dozens of them. And a wonderful book of letters from various artists to an artist just beginning. The book is entitled, "Letters to a Young Artist" and is a gem, witty, touching, funny, practical...

[jacky brown]

i loved discovering the letters between Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister. They came, in some ways, from such different perspectives...psychology, faith..., but there was such a deep respect for each other. I think they wrote for almost 30 years.