A review by mbahnaf
Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher

5.0

Letters of Note is a collection of over a hundred correspondences across time. There isn't a unique theme to these letters and their arrangement is quite random.

"The highlights are endless, but let me pluck a handful from the bag to whet your appetite. We have a letter from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol that contains a wonderfully laid-back design brief for a Rolling Stones album cover; a handwritten note from Queen Elizabeth II to US President Eisenhower which is accompanied by Ma’am’s personal scone recipe; a remarkable and masterful riposte from a freed slave to his old master that will leave many of you punching the air; Virginia Woolf’s heart-rending final letter to her husband, written shortly before taking her own life; a beautiful, delicate letter of advice from Iggy Pop to a troubled young fan that could warm the coldest of hearts; a truly incredible letter penned by scientist Francis Crick to his son, in which he announces the discovery of the structure of DNA; a harrowing account of a mastectomy performed without anaesthetic, written by the 60-year old patient to her daughter; and an extraordinary job application letter from one of history’s most celebrated minds, Leonardo da Vinci. On your travels you will read love letters, rejection letters, fan letters, apology letters; you will be saddened, maddened, delighted and shocked. One of the letters, imprinted into a clay tablet, dates all the way back to the 14th century BC; the most recent is just a few years old. However, despite their many flavours, I am hopeful that all will captivate you as they have me and whisk you to a point in time far more effectively than the average history book – indeed, I can think of no better way to learn about the past than through the often candid correspondence of those who lived it."

-Shaun Usher in the foreword

The book's aesthetic is enhanced with scanned copies of the originals of the letters. The stories are quite remarkable, but I felt they are too random to be read in one sitting. The collection seemed to me to be something one would like to leaf through at will to read at leisure. It also might make a good addition to the coffee-table for others. Here are a few samples.

"In March 1973, acclaimed author E.B. White wrote the following perfectly formed reply to a Mr Nadeau, who sought White’s opinion on what he saw as a bleak future for the human race. "

"In 1934, a New York copywriter by the name of Robert Pirosh quit his well-paid job and headed for Hollywood, determined to begin the career of his dreams as a screenwriter. When he arrived, he gathered the names and addresses of as many directors, producers and studio executives as he could find and sent them what is surely one of the greatest, most effective cover letters ever to be written; a letter which secured him three interviews, one of which led to his job as a junior writer at MGM.

Fifteen years later, screenwriter Robert Pirosh won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the war film, Battleground. A few months after that, he also won a Golden Globe."

A heartwarming reply from Roald Dahl to seven-year-old Amy, who had sent him one of her dreams, contained in a bottle, along with a letter. The dream is an allusion to the BFG, one of Amy's favorite Dahl books, wonderful, magical story of a Big Friendly Giant who collects nice dreams and then blows them through the windows of sleeping children.

Happy reading!