The Lost Art of Letter Writing

When I was a little girl, nothing excited me more than getting a letter in the mail. The envelope addressed with my name (possibly with the addition of “Miss” to make me feel grown up and fancy) and sent via the United States Postal Service to my house. The stamp in the upper right hand corner with the postmark covering it, letting me know that it had been posted from far off places like Los Angeles and Eureka, California (I really only got letters from my older brothers and sisters, so the destinations were rarely too exotic, but in the mind of a seven year old, these were far flung destinations indeed). And the best letters were those that came between special occasions. Not the obligatory “Happy Birthday!” or “Merry Christmas,” but a letter or note that came for no reason at all other than to say hello. Everyone in my family must have known about my love of letters because my brothers and sisters would send one to me fairly often and sometimes even wrote a message inside that basically said, “Dear Lauren, I’m writing this letter because I know how much you love getting mail. Love, Your Favorite Sibling.” (I must admit that this was a viable method of becoming my “favorite.” Of course, that also meant that the next sibling who sent me a letter immediately usurped that position, but…them’s the breaks.)

To this day, I still love receiving letters in the mail. A miserable day can instantly be made better by the sight of a personalized envelope sitting in the mail. On those days it doesn’t even matter what the letter says. The fact that someone cared about me enough to take the time to put pen to paper makes my day just a bit brighter. Unfortunately, the art of letter writing is swiftly being lost.

Now, I am not the type of person to wax nostalgic for a prior period of history. I don’t think there has ever truly been a “Golden Age.” Every era comes with its own problems and hardships and no time period has been (or probably will be) perfect. But there are standards and qualities that fall to the wayside over time that probably shouldn’t and I think letter writing is one of them. Prior to the invention of the telegraph, the telephone and email, writing letters was the major, and outside face-to-face meetings, only way to communicate with family, friends and acquaintances. People would write long, multi-page letters with everything from business transactions to daily gossip. And those letters became a part of history. So much of what we now know about a time is based on letters that were written between people in positions of power and ordinary people that history would otherwise have completely forgotten, but which reveal so much when we’re looking back hundreds of years later wondering what life was truly like for people in all levels of society.

In a recent interview, Doris Kearns Goodwin, well known biographer and historian who has written books on several U.S. presidents, lamented the loss of letter writing. In her interview, she stated that true histories such as those she’s written about Lincoln, Johnson, the Kennedys, etc. will not be possible in the future because that fundamental cornerstone of historical documentation, the letter, almost no longer exists. Instead, our society has turned to the immediacy of the telephone, email and texting to communicate. Some will argue that emails and texts leave a record, so communications are documented somewhere. To this, I can only laugh. Emails rarely include extraneous information. In fact, emailers often forgo even salutations, preferring to get to the point as quickly as possible. Very few of the elements of letters that made them so historically useful appear in emails. (And don’t even get me started on the travesty of text messaging with its bastardization of the English language.)

But more important than this general loss to society, however, is the loss to me personally. Few people write me letters anymore and that is so disappointing. My most faithful correspondent is my friend Torrie. We met in law school and quickly realized we shared a love of receiving mail. Upon discovering this fact, we declared that we would write each other letters regularly, each doing our part to keep the USPS alive. I’m happy to say that after 7 years of friendship, I now have two shoeboxes full of letters and postcards from Torrie and she has an equal number from me. Even when we lived less than 5 minutes from each other through law school we kept up a regular correspondence schedule and now that she lives half-way across the country in distant (and exotic) Chicago, IL we send each other at least two to three letters per week and care packages filled with small goodies every couple of months. We still call each other on the phone, send emails and text to share news as well, but a great deal of our life updates comes via old-fashioned, hand-written letters.

I’ve tried at various times to start similar correspondences with others (even going so far as to send thank you notes for thank you notes), but eventually they all peter out as my letters go, increasingly, unanswered. When meeting new people, if the subject of letter writing comes up (as it did with all my co-workers one day two months ago when it just so happened to be National Letter Writing Day – a British holiday, but one that I feel I can celebrate as well – a fact that I quickly reminded them of) I gently (forcefully) reminded (insisted) people write letters to their loved ones. Most people don’t understand why I feel so passionately about the subject of letter writing. I, in turn, don’t understand their apathy. I pity those people who have never felt that small surge of joy at seeing a letter waiting for them in the mail, knowing that the writer cares enough to take the time to put pen to paper. That is a feeling that can buoy your spirits just when you need a pick-me-up and surround you in a small bubble of warmth and happiness, the perfect remedy to many of your minor ills.

And so I urge you all to write a letter to a loved one or a friend. It might be just the thing they need. And if that doesn’t convince you to give letter writing a try, think about the fame. In just a few short centuries those letters may be priceless.