Letters of Note

Description

Letters of Note, the book based on the beloved website of the same name, became an instant classic on publication in 2013, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. This new edition sees the collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters updated with fourteen riveting new missives and a new introduction from curator Shaun Usher. From Virginia Woolf's heart-breaking suicide letter to Queen Elizabeth II's recipe for drop scones sent to President Eisenhower; from the first recorded use of the expression 'OMG' in a letter to Winston Churchill, to Gandhi's appeal for calm to Hitler; and from Iggy Pop's beautiful letter of advice to a troubled young fan, to Leonardo da Vinci's remarkable job application letter, Letters of Note is a celebration of the power of written correspondence which captures the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up all of our lives.

Informations

• Publié par: Canongate Books
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781838856168
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Letters of Note was born in 2009 with the launch of lettersofnote.com, a website celebrating old-fashioned correspondence that has since been visited over 100 million times. The first Letters of Note volume was published in October 2013, followed later that year by the first Letters Live, an event at which world-class performers delivered remarkable letters to a live audience.
Since then, these two siblings have grown side by side, with Letters of Note becoming an international phenomenon, and Letters Live shows being staged at iconic venues around the world, from London’s Royal Albert Hall to the theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles.
You can find out more at lettersofnote.com and letterslive.com. And now you can listen to audio editions of the Letters of Note books, read by an extraordinary cast drawn from the wealth of talent that regularly takes part in the acclaimed Letters Live shows.
 
This revised and updated edition published in Great Britain, the USA and Canada in 2021 by Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
Distributed in the USA by Publishers Group West
and in Canada by Publishers Group Canada
canongate.co.uk
This digital edition first published in 2021 by Canongate Books
Selection and introductions copyright © Shaun Usher, 2021
Individual letters © individual authors
The right of Shaun Usher to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on
request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 83885 317 4 eISBN 978 1 83885 616 8
Typeset by Alan Bremner | VisionAB
Based on an original design by Here Design
For Karina
CONTENTS
Introduction
001 ONE’S DROP SCONES
Queen Elizabeth II to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
002 FROM HELL
Jack the Ripper to George Lusk
003 WIND THE CLOCK
E. B. White to Mr Nadeau
004 I AM TO BE EXECUTED
Mary Stuart to Henry III of France
005 I HEAR YOU LIKE TOMATO SOUP
William P. MacFarland to Andy Warhol
006 I WONDER WHAT YOUR TRUE BELIEFS REALLY ARE
Bill Hicks to a priest
007 THE WILDERNESS
Wallace Stegner to David E. Pesonen
008 O GOD FOR ONE MORE BREATH
Jacob Vowell to Sarah Ellen
009 THE ELEPHANT MAN
Francis Carr-Gomm to The Times
010 I LIKE WORDS
Robert Pirosh to various
011 I CAN’T FIGHT ANY LONGER
Virginia Woolf to Leonard Woolf
012 INTO ETERNITY
Vilma Grünwald to Kurt Grünwald
013 AS DIRE AS ITS TITLE
Ian Main to Head of Comedy and Light Entertainment
014 I STAND ASTOUNDED AND APPALLED
Charles Dickens to The Times
015 FIFTY LADY SHARPSHOOTERS AWAIT
Annie Oakley to US President William McKinley
016 TO HELL WITH HITLER
Patrick Hitler to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
017 DON’T SHAKE MY TREE
Shirley Jackson to a disgruntled reader
018 HOW I WOULD LIKE TO WORK FOR YOU!
Eudora Welty to The New Yorker
019 I WILL BE THERE IN THE TREES
Kathleen Keyes to The Irish Times
020 FIVE ACCIDENTS IN TWO MINUTES
Fred Allen to the State of New York Insurance Department
021 TO MY OLD MASTER
Jourdon Anderson to Patrick Henry Anderson
022 MY GOOD FRIEND ROOSVELT
Fidel Castro to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
023 A MAN HAS TO BE SOMETHING; HE HAS TO MATTER
Hunter S. Thompson to Hume Logan
024 I BEG YOU TO TAKE MY CHILD
Various Mothers to The Foundling Asylum
025 THOU EUNUCH OF LANGUAGE
Robert Burns to a critic
026 A PERSONAL LETTER FROM STEVE MARTIN
Steve Martin to Jerry Carlson
027 IS IT A DISGRACE TO BE BORN A CHINESE?
Mary Tape to San Francisco Board of Education
028 O.M.G.
John Arbuthnot Fisher to Winston Churchill
029 DON’T LET ANYBODY RAISE YOU
Maya Angelou to herself
030 GOD DAMN IT, I SPLIT IT SO IT WILL STAY SPLIT
Raymond Chandler to Edward Weeks
031 I SHALL BE WAITING FOR YOU
Lady Shigenari to Kimura Shigenari
032 MY MUSE IS NOT A HORSE
Nick Cave to MTV
033 OUR FRANK
The Connell Family to The Ciulla Family
034 I AM NOT AFRAID OF ROBOTS. I AM AFRAID OF PEOPLE
Ray Bradbury to Brian Sibley
035 DO
Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse
036 WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN’T HEAR YOU…
Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy
037 THE AX
Charles M. Schulz to Elizabeth Swaim
038 I LOVE MY WIFE. MY WIFE IS DEAD.
Richard Feynman to Arline Feynman
039 YOU ARE NOT SO KIND AS YOU USED TO BE
Clementine Churchill to Winston Churchill
040 YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS
Virginia O’Hanlon to Editor of the Sun
041 I HAVE JUST WRITTEN YOU A LONG LETTER
Alfred D. Wintle to Editor of The Times
042 SWEETHEART COME
Emma Hauck to Mark Hauck
043 AVENGE MY DEATH
Masanobu Kuno to his children
044 DON’T TOUCH HIS HAIR
Three Elvis Presley fans to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
045 TO: MY WIDOW
Robert Scott to Kathleen Scott
046 PUT UP YOUR DUKES AND WRITE!
Jack Kerouac to Marlon Brando
047 YOU MUST KNOW AGAIN MY RELUCTANCE TO MARRY
Amelia Earhart to George Putnam
048 I’D LIKE TO CONTINUE TO BE A GOOD SOLDIER
Eddie Slovik to General Dwight D. Eisenhower
049 THE GALILEAN MOONS
Galileo Galilei to Leonardo Donato
050 THE BIRCH BARK LETTERS
Gavrila Posenya to various
051 TO A TOP SCIENTIST
Denis Cox to a top scientist
052 DEEP SICKNESS SEIZED ME
Lucy Thurston to Mary Thurston
053 HE’S HERE, LIVING AND VIVID AND UNFORGETTABLE FOREVER
Stewart Stern to The Winslows
054 I MISS MY BIGGEST HEART
Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert
055 YOUR END IS APPROACHING
Unknown to Martin Luther King, Jr
056 A MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
Francis Crick to Michael Crick
057 THE SKILLS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Leonardo da Vinci to Ludovico Sforza
058 I AM IN A STATE OF SHOCK
Flannery O’Connor to a professor of English
059 FEDERAL AGENT AT LARGE
Elvis Presley to US President Richard Nixon
060 DO NOT GRIEVE FOR ME
Fyodor Dostoevsky to Mikhail Dostoevsky
061 17 MILLION NEGROES CANNOT WAIT FOR THE HEARTS OF MEN TO CHANGE
Jackie Robinson to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
062 11 ALIVE…NEED SMALL BOAT…KENNEDY
John F. Kennedy to Allied Forces
063 OH CHRIST, THE COOK IS DEAD
Spike Milligan to Stephen Gard
064 IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER
William Safire to H. R. Haldeman
065 THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DEATH
Laura Huxley to Julian and Juliette Huxley
066 REGARDING YOUR DAM COMPLAINT
Stephen L. Tvedten to David L. Price
067 WHY EXPLORE SPACE?
Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger to Sister Mary Jucunda
068 THE STRUGGLE MUST CONTINUE, FOR OUR FUTURE’S SAKE
Eddie Glaude and Langston Glaude
069 WHAT GLOOMY TIDINGS ABOUT THE CRABS
Patrick Leigh Fermor to Enrica Huston
070 WHO IS THIS KID?
Tom Hanks and George Roy Hill
071 I WROTE A BOOK CALLED THE GODFATHER
Mario Puzo to Marlon Brando
072 THE RESULT WOULD BE A CATASTROPHE
Roger Boisjoly to R. K. Lund
073 ALL THE LADIES LIKE WHISKERS
Grace Bedell to Abraham Lincoln
074 I FELT THE RISK OF BEING OVERWHELMED BY GIGER
James Cameron to Leslie Barany
075 HOW COULD YOU GO AHEAD OF ME?
A Widow to Eung-Tae Lee
076 I AM THE SERVANT OF THE KING
Ayyab to Amenhotep IV
077 I SHALL ALWAYS BE NEAR YOU
Sullivan Ballou to Sarah Ballou
078 I’M STILL SOMEPLACE
Uncle Lynn to Peggy, Dorothy, Chuck and Dick Jones
079 THE BIRTH OF BONFIRE NIGHT
Unknown to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle
080 WE ARE THE GIFT
Melissa Harris Perry to Richard Mourdock
081 FORGET YOUR PERSONAL TRAGEDY
Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald
082 I WAS MEANT TO BE A COMPOSER
Samuel Barber to Marguerite Barber
083 PERMISSION TO LAND
Buang-Ly to USS Midway
084 SAY YES I NEED A JOB
Tim Schafer to David Fox
085 WE NO LONGER HAVE ANY RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT
36 American writers to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
086 KIPLING’S HINTS ON SCHOOLBOY ETIQUETTE
Rudyard Kipling to Editors of the Horsmonden School Budget
087 SEX DOES NOT THRIVE ON MONOTONY
Anaïs Nin to The Collector
088 KISS MY ASS
Bill Baxley to Edward R. Fields
089 THE HEILIGENSTADT TESTAMENT
Ludwig van Beethoven to his brothers
090 PAY IT FORWARD
Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Webb
091 ALSO
Lady Elizabeth Compton to Lord William Compton
092 I WAS READY TO SINK INTO THE EARTH WITH SHAME
Form letter
093 SORROW PASSES AND WE REMAIN
Henry James to Grace Norton
094 IT WILL PROVE INVINCIBLE
Philip K. Dick to Jeff Walker
095 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US IS VERY MARKED
Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman
096 NEW RUBBISH DIALOGUE
Alec Guinness to Anne Kaufman
097 I REFUSE TO BE CHEATED OUT OF MY DEATHBED SCENE
Rebecca West to H. G. Wells
098 OBSCENE AND SACRILEGIOUS
Lord Bernard Delfont to Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings
099 WRETCHED WOMAN!
Jermain Loguen to Sarah Logue
100 THIS IS NO DRILL
CINCPAC to all ships
101 DEAR 8 YEAR-OLD TERESA
Wil Wheaton to Teresa Jusino
102 WHAT A DANDY CAR YOU MAKE
Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford
103 LOVE, DAD
Ronald Reagan to Michael Reagan
104 WE ARE SINKING FAST
Titanic to SS Birma
105 AN INCREDIBLE COINCIDENCE
Robert T. Lincoln to Richard W. Gilder
106 PIXAR FILMS DON’T GET FINISHED, THEY JUST GET RELEASED
Pete Docter to Adam
107 MAY WE ALL GET BETTER TOGETHER
Charles Bukowski to Hans van den Broek
108 WE ALL FEEL LIKE THAT NOW AND THEN
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to Lord Reginald Pembroke
109 IT WAS HARD TO GIVE FIVE SONS TO THE NAVY
Alleta Sullivan to US Navy
110 NOTHING GOOD GETS AWAY
John Steinbeck to Thom Steinbeck
111 THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
James Hicks to his fellow postmasters
112 IT IS LIKE CONFESSING A MURDER
Charles Darwin to Joseph D. Hooker
113 HARDLY ONE. HARDLY ONE
Arthur C. Fifield to Gertrude Stein
114 JOHN LENNON SIGNED MY ALBUM
Mark Chapman to a memorabilia expert