Collected Letters Dick Loftin
Years ago, I came across a copy of the Letters of E.B. White. It
Adams and his wife Abigail are some of the most beautiful
was a thick, 700-page collection from 1908 to 1976, the year
letters ever written. The Adams’ understood the critical times
the book was published. The only thing I could think of was,
they lived in, and saved every one of their letters—well over a
“Why in the world would anyone want to read someone else’s
thousand. The Adams’ letters are collected in a fine volume
mail?” When the White collection was published, editor Dorothy
edited by Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor called My
Lobrano Guth lamented in the introduction about how people
Dearest Friend—Letters of Abigail and John Adams, published in
never wrote letters anymore because of “the intrusive urgency of
2007. Another important John Adams-related collection is that
the telephone.” The comment seems almost quaint today. But
of his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. After a decade of
people continued to write letters, and many more collections
estrangement, they renewed their close friendship in 1812. The
of letters and journals appeared, but today, Ms. Guth’s worry
Adams-Jefferson Letters, edited by Lester J. Cappon, contains
seems valid. [A revised edition, published in 2006 was edited by
their complete correspondence from 1777 to 1826. Both Adams
his granddaughter, Martha White, and features a fine introduction
and Jefferson died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826,
by John Updike. It contains White’s letters up to his death in
the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Just
1985.]
imagine these letters being lost to a hard drive crash or the careless deletion of an associate.
With the introduction of digital communications, the
Letters can contain much needed advice, some appreciated
traditional letter, the one with an envelope and a stamp, seems lost. Texts, emails, Facebook, Twitter, and any number of social
condolences after the passing of a loved one, some family
media platforms are quick hits of our lives. We don’t write
information, some good news. They could also contain a literary
about our lives in letters, we write about them in Tweets, very
kick in the pants. In his excellent book, John Adams, David
public Tweets, which are shared and shared again around the
McCullough writes of a letter sent by Abigail Adams to her son,
world. Unlike letters, there are no carbon copies or files where
John Quincy Adams, upon learning the young man was getting
duplicates are kept for future reference. Sure, there are places
a little too impressed with himself. She warned of “Watchfulness
on your email where a copy can be “saved,” but even these are
over yourself,” and wrote:
heavily thinned out over time, or deleted altogether with just one
“If you are conscious to yourself that you possess more
click. It has historians such as David McCullough worried over
knowledge upon some subjects than others of your standing,
the future of history and especially biography. Historians in the
reflect that you have had greater opportunities of seeing the
future, it is feared, will have less and less primary source material
world, and obtaining a knowledge of mankind than any of your
to study because of fewer and fewer actual letters being written
contemporaries. That you have never wanted a book but it has
and saved.
been supplied to you, that your whole time has been spent in the
I lost my first copy of Mr. White’s letters years ago and
company of men of literature and science. How unpardonable
was thrilled to find it—in hardcover—at a flea market in Tulsa,
would it have been in you to have been a blockhead.” Priceless. I can only imagine what John Quincy thought
Oklahoma. I also found a copy of the Letters of Ronald Reagan.
upon receiving the letter from his very straightforward mother.
On another visit, I found the Letters of Carl Sandberg. The
Letters are guarded and unguarded, elegant and not so
Reagan letters were published in 2003, the Sandberg letters in 1968. Finding these books at a time when digital composition
elegant. They are most of all, a look through the window of
has taken over our way of writing made me appreciate them
history from the pen of the people living it, and taking the time to
even more. It made me realise why we should still be interested
write about it. Many people of Adams’ time would end the day
in reading the exchange of letters from these individuals. It is the
with reading or catching up on their letter-writing. Letters, like any great literature, will take you back to a
firsthand history of a public figure’s life. Letters are generally personal. A private message from
time when history was alive and in the moment. A discovery
one person to another, usually written for no one other than the
of a shoebox in a musty attic can take us back fifty years into
recipient. The letters are private, but they can be funny, serious,
someone’s life. We hear the voice, we engage the hope, and feel
testy, sweet. They can be heartfelt, horrible, or sensational.
the despair of the writer. The joy of opening the mailbox and finding a letter from
They are always interesting. The sensitive letters between John
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