Tag Archives: letter writing

Reviving the Art of Letter Writing

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One of my favorite books in high school was The Lazlo Letters: The amazing, real-life correspondence of Lazlo Toth, American! I still have my original, well-worn copy. Written by Don Novello, better known as Father Guido Sarducci and a fixture on Saturday Night Live in its early days, the book is a compilation of the letters written and received by the fictional character Lazlo Toth. Like Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report, Novello adopts a conservative persona that was funny at the time, but now seems almost commonplace and maybe not so funny.

The Halifax Examiner, in its celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the book, provides a sample of letters Toth wrote to everyone from Richard Nixon about how badly the media mistreated him to the CEO of RJ Reynolds on their shared disdain for the anti-smoking lobby. He received earnest replies that were often funnier than the original letter. Benjamin Errett at Get Wit Quick provides more background on Toth’s work, calling it “epistolary trolling.” On the Media recorded a fun interview with Novello on the 30th anniversary of the first volume. You can borrow the original book with a free Internet Archive subscription.

Letter writing, in general, is coming back in fashion. The Sunday Letter Writing Project, begun by a British stationary shop in 2023, encourages the practice, suggesting generally quiet Sunday afternoons as the perfect time to pen a missive to a friend. If you don’t have a ready correspondent, they provide a list of pen pals.

I was an avid letter writer in my early days. I loved the whole ritual: pouring a beverage, putting on music, pulling out the good stationary and the fountain pens and settling in to talk with my friends and family via the written word. We exchanged letters so I would also have their most recent correspondence and always started by responding to what they had written, answering questions and commenting on their news. I continue the practice to some extent, sending handmade cards for holidays, usually with a short note to the recipient. Not quite the same as a letter but at least a foundation for a larger practice.

My book group recently read The Correspondent, Virginia Evans’ debut epistolary novel that features Sybil, an elderly woman who has spent her life writing letters to friends, family and luminaries. It was a wonderful story but also an homage to what was considered a dying art. One woman in the group shared that she still writes letters, even exchanging notes with her neighbor down the street. When I got home from the meeting, I knew I would write her a letter. I received a lovely reply and plan to send her another note soon. I have written to a young friend who recently relocated to another state. I am hoping to continue, starting with my former correspondents. We text and email and message in social media Words with Friends, but I imagine they would welcome a letter, both for the news and the nostalgia.

Writer’s Block

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Gerard ter Borch, Woman Writing a Letter (1655)
The Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague

I have been writing a lot of words in the past week although they are mostly not ready for prime time. I discovered Jeff Warren‘s meditation designed to help with creative block and have been using it for the past few mornings. Warren’s approach is similar to Julia Cameron’s morning pages applied to whatever you create: just write or draw or sing or sculpt without thinking or judging. Warren even suggests that it should be terrible. Making bad art is something Austin Kleon has written about as well.

Warren uses a timer–I’ve been doing 20 minutes–and rather than writing long hand the way I have for decades of morning pages, I am using my Freewrite keyboard. I want to start producing publishable text and the morning pages don’t lend themselves to formal writing. For now, the goal is getting the habit in place.

I haven’t given up the long hand morning pages, however, and am experimenting with approaching them as letters to an old friend. Still mostly stream of consciousness but with a bit of organization and thoughtfulness.

Letter writing has been on my mind, perhaps as part of a general nostalgia I’ve been feeling as I continue my transition into semi-retirement. In the olden days, I loved nothing better than spending an afternoon writing long letters to friends and family, settled into a comfortable chair with favorite pens and paper, a beverage alongside, maybe some music playing. I had a few good correspondents over the years, including the friend I visited in Pennsylvania this summer, but time and life and technology eventually saw our letters dwindle to a few lines on birthday and holiday cards, and now have largely been replaced by email, text messages and social media messages.

I am going to make time this week to write a newsy letter to my old friend. I did send a short thank you note, one of those cards with a few scribbled lines, when I returned home, but life has happened since we sat beside her pool. I will tell her about all the tomato sauce I am making from my San Marzano tomatoes, the cool, rainy weather that seems to herald fall’s arrival, what I am reading and watching, plans for the fall. It will be, at least for a little while, as though we are together again.