8 May (1955): Jane Bowles to Paul Bowles
Jane Bowles writes to husband Paul from Morocco, shortly before France’s recognition of its independence. Bowles situates her depressive turns and financial travails within a...
7 May (1978): John Cheever to Anonymous
...by the time I have autographed these all the lonely, lonely people who hoped to meet a man as lonely as they will have to...
6 May (1951): Allen Ginsberg to Ezra Pound
Am occupied adjusting, trying to find place in society, work; not much ambition yet, etc. more woe.
2 May (1934): Dylan Thomas to Pamela Hansford Johnson
What is this death, this birth and apparent pain, this glib love, this rush to the head of so many extraneous creatures of the air...
1 May (1959): Evelyn Waugh to Lady Mary Lygon
The English novelist and satirist writes to his friend and confidante, Lady Mary Lygon, a British aristocrat and Russian princess by marriage. Waugh is distraught...
30 April (1819): John Keats to George and Georgiana Keats
I have been endeavouring to discover a better Sonnet Stanza than we have...
26 April (1876): Leo Tolstoy to Nikolai Strakhov
Besides, the likes of us, as you know, are constantly leaping without any transition from despondency and self-abasement to inordinate pride...
25 April (1959): Flannery O’Connor to Maryat Lee
No I can’t see James Baldwin in Georgia. It would cause the greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion. I observe the traditions of the society...
24 April (1915): Robert Frost to John T. Bartlett
Robert Frost writes in confidence to John T. Bartlett, his longtime family friend, about how recent literary fame has changed both his creative work and...
23 April (1934): William Carlos Williams to "the Editor of A Year Magazine"
Americans in general are infantile in their reactions to sex...
22 April (1810): William Hazlitt to Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt
Humanist essayist and critic William Hazlitt writes to his wife about his forays into painting after having written extensively on the topic. He shares his...
19 April (1928): Aldous Huxley to Julian Huxley
Have you seen the Express’s anti-birth control campaign? They are saying that B.C. gives women cancer. Not bad propaganda that!
18 April (1940): C.S. Lewis to Mary Neylan
We are like children pulling the levers of a vast machine of which most is concealed...
17 April (1764): Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Louis Eugene von Württemberg
To have conquered Frederick would no doubt have been a fine stroke, but to conquer in one's own heart the prejudices and passions that subjugate...
16 April (1871): Fyodor Dostoevsky to Anna Dostoyevskaya
Anya, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of Lyuba, for the sake of our whole future, don’t start worrying and getting all upset—read...
12 April (1932): Ernest Hemingway to John Dos Passos
The third night we butcher the free thinkers, atheists, communists, and members of the lighthouse service...
11 April (1913): Virginia Woolf to Violet Dickinson
After finishing her first novel, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf wrote this short exuberant letter from the countryside to “talk shop” with her intimate friend...
10 April (1706): Alexander Pope to William Wycherley
Donne (like one of his successors) had infinitely more Wit than he wanted Versification: for the great dealers in Wit, like those in Trade, take...
9 April (1970): Charles Bukowski to John Martin
John Martin of Black Sparrow Press was an important early champion of Charles Bukowski’s work. This letter was written the year after they struck their famous...
8 April (1944): Bertolt Brecht to Paul Tillich
In his correspondence with Christian theologian Paul Tillich, Bertolt Brecht sought an ally in his plans to establish a Committee with fellow anti-Nazi Germans in...
5 April (1916): George Bernard Shaw to Alfred Powell
Shaw had attended a performance of puppets four days earlier at the home of Alfred Powell, an architect who was active in the arts and...
4 April (1957): Ralph Ellison to Albert Murray
Ralph Ellision, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, writes to Albert Murray, a writer, Air Force pilot, a longtime friend, and fellow...
3 April (1855): Charles Dickens to Maria Winter
After first meeting Maria Winter née Beadnell in 1930, Charles Dickens fell into a fervent—and unreciprocated—love for four years. Twenty-five years later, a married Maria...
All Fools' Day (1708): Jonathan Swift kills off John Partridge
Not one to miss a chance for mischief, Jonathan Swift set his sights in 1708 on astrologer and almanac-maker John Partridge. In January of the...
