Writers' Letters

Sometimes when caught up in our emails, Snapchats, texts and more, it is easy to forget that people once wrote letters. Yes, letters. A form of correspondence that called for careful writing and a time lag before having a thought and someone’s reading it. Well, this book honors that art of letter writing.

There are so many authors included that it is difficult to choose just a few. To whet your appetite, how about Sylvia Plath, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Austen, John Donne, D.H. Lawrence, Jack Kerouac of Stefan Zweig? Also, readers may find it fascinating to find out to whom each letter is written.

The book is organized into eight sections. Some of these are titled “Before they were famous,” “between friends,” “literary business” and “leave taking.” There are photos of the letters in each section which brings an immediacy to the pages.

This book can be read in any order or just dipped into. It offers a delightful exploration of the written word. Each letter is preceded by some context about what follows. Don’t skip the interesting introduction. It was insightful about women and letter writing among other topics.

I recommend this title. It offers an interesting read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

A cogent and compartmentalized look at connections between creatives (and their associated intimate and not-so-intimate circles) across the last couple of centuries, Writers' Letters collates together a neat and ultra-concentrated collection that imparts innumerable insights into the inner lives and interlinking literary affairs of celebrated literati, annotating the cited lines of correspondence with crucial context clues and interesting crumbs of informed commentary.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion for kindly passing on this ARC! 💫

Writers' Letters is a treasure. I enjoyed Writer's Letters and the way the book was organized is fantastic. The book has a copy of the original on one side, which is so intriguing to see the penmanship of the writer's, and then a brief backstory of the sender and receiver, of what was possibly going on during the time that the writer was putting together their letter and the transcribed version of the letter. So many letters to read from, so many time periods covered within this book, with Victor Hugo, Zora Neale Hurston, and Miguel de Cervantes as a few of my favorites but yet so many wonderful and interesting exchanges in these letters, in this book.

Writers' Letters is a collection of personal letters from writers to friends, lovers, family, and foes. From Samuel Johnson's letter to his adopted ex-slave Jamaican heir and Mart Twain's adorable letter to Walt Whitman, this is a collection for lovers of all things literature. Writers' Letters is a book exposing the struggles, foibles, and inner lives of writers when they are not professionally crafting a narrative for the public.

WHAT STANDS OUT
The diversity of writers here is a good thing. From differences in ethnicity to genres, you are likely to find one or two of your favourite writers here.

I love the background provided for each letter. This gives each correspondence some context, enabling the reader to understand why it was written, to whom, and under which historical circumstances.

It was nice seeing prints of the original documents in the book. It gives this collection an authentic flavour.

DISLIKES
None.

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion for providing a review copy.