Letters Never Sent

[Dan Goodwin]

I'm very fond of writing and receiving hand written letters which is becoming something of a lost art form in our ever more digital world.

I've been looking through some old letters I've received, and they're greatly treasured. I want to write and receive more.

In the meantime I thought it would be interesting to hear about letters you've written and not sent. Maybe you wrote the letter with no intention of sending it in the first place, maybe you had second thoughts, maybe the person you addressed to moved away, or your relationship changed, or, they suddenly passed away.

Share your tales (and samples if you have them) of letters never sent...

[Mary Hicks]

You've reminded me of one of my favorite books ever, 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (one of my life heroes). Did you ever see the movie? It's about writing letters. Wonderful.

[Dan Goodwin]

I haven't read it, but it sounds great, just put the book on my Amazon wishlist...

[Mary Hicks]

It's one of my favorite books ever! A few years ago, Warren gave me a first-edition copy for Christmas, and I treasure it.

Please let me know how you like it...and then, rent the movie!!

XO
Mary

[Dan Goodwin]

Came across this, about Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose most famous poem is probably "How Do I Love Thee (Let Me Count The Ways)"...

"Elizabeth returned home emotionally broken, becoming an invalid and a recluse. She spent the next five years in her bedroom at her father's home. She continued writing, however, and in 1844 produced a collection entitled simply Poems. This volume gained the attention of poet Robert Browning, whose work Elizabeth had praised in one of her poems, and he wrote her a letter.

Elizabeth and Robert, who was six years her junior, exchanged 574 letters over the next twenty months. Immortalized in 1930 in the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, by Rudolf Besier (1878-1942), their romance was bitterly opposed by her father, who did not want any of his children to marry. In 1846, the couple eloped and settled in Florence, Italy, where Elizabeth's health improved and she bore a son, Robert Wideman Browning. Her father never spoke to her again. Elizabeth's Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was published in 1850. Critics generally consider the Sonnets—one of the most widely known collections of love lyrics in English—to be her best work..."

See more on poets.org

[DJ]

Years ago, I read that Robert called her his Little Portuguese, hence the collection title...

[Dan Goodwin]

Ah I see... That collection, from what I've read of it, is just some of the most wonderful love poems I've ever come across. So touching, eloquent and breathtaking...