Shaun Usher - More Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience

Dear Reader,

The book you are holding came about in a rather different way to most others. It was funded directly by readers through a new website: Unbound.

Unbound is the creation of three writers. We started the company because we believed there had to be a better deal for both writers and readers. On the Unbound website, authors share the ideas for the books they want to write directly with readers. If enough of you support the book by pledging for it in advance, we produce a beautifully bound special subscribers edition and distribute a regular edition and e-book wherever books are sold, in shops and online.

This new way of publishing is actually a very old idea (Samuel Johnson funded his dictionary this way). Were just using the internet to build each writer a network of patrons. Here, at the back of this book, youll find the names of all the people who made it happen.

Publishing in this way means readers are no longer just passive consumers of the books they buy, and authors are free to write the books they really want. They get a much fairer return too half the profits their books generate, rather than a tiny percentage of the cover price.

If youre not yet a subscriber, we hope that youll want to join our publishing revolution and have your name listed in one of our books in the future. To get you started, here is a 5 discount on your first pledge. Just visit unbound.com, make your pledge and type LETTERS2 in the promo code box when you check out.

Thank you for your support,

Dan, Justin and John

Founders, Unbound

For Karina

ROBERT CRUMB TO MATS GUSTAFSSON

HOLLIS FRAMPTON TO MOMA

RACHEL CARSON TO DOROTHY FREEMAN

STEVE ALBINI TO NIRVANA

ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO FANNY MCCULLOUGH

ELIZABETH SMART TO GEORGE BARKER

VIVIAN ROSEWARNE TO HIS MOTHER

JOHN MUIR TO JEANNE CARR

ABREAM SCRIVEN TO HIS WIFE

SYLVIA PLATH TO HER FAMILY

ALDOUS HUXLEY TO GEORGE ORWELL

HELEN KELLER TO THE NEW YORK SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

ASGER JORN TO THE GUGGENHEIM

BRIAN DOYLE TO VARIOUS

SHELAGH DELANEY TO JOAN LITTLEWOOD

JACK TRICE TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

MARGE SIMPSON TO BARBARA BUSH

CARL SANDBURG TO MARGARET SANDBURG

RAYMOND CHANDLER TO LEONARD RUSSELL

ALBERT CAMUS TO LOUIS GERMAIN

WINSTON CHURCHILL TO LOUIS DE SOUZA

LION FEUCHTWANGER TO THE OCCUPANT OF HIS HOUSE

SHEPSI TO INKHENMET

RICHARD BURTON TO ELIZABETH TAYLOR

BEATRIX POTTER TO NOEL MOORE

JESSIE BERNARD TO HER UNBORN CHILD

SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER TO ALYSE GREGORY

GERALD DURRELL TO LEE MCGEORGE

VIRGINIA REED TO MARY KEYES

EDWARD TIGER MIKE DAVIS TO HIS STAFF

HANNAH GROVER TO CATO

JANIS JOPLIN TO HER PARENTS

TOM CLANCY TO HIS FRIENDS

FLIGHT 123 PASSENGERS TO VARIOUS

BUD WILKINSON TO JAY WILKINSON

PRIVATE EYE TO GOODMAN DERRICK & CO.

JO ELLEN MISAKIAN TO FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

DOROTHY PARKER TO PASCAL COVICI

NOL COWARD TO MARLENE DIETRICH

PAUL REVERE OSLER TO GRACE OSLER

AYN RAND TO CAT FANCY MAGAZINE

SAMUEL CLEMENS TO ORION CLEMENS

SAMANTHA SMITH TO YURI ANDROPOV

BRIAN KEITH TO DAVE

WILLIAM BURROUGHS TO TRUMAN CAPOTE

W. E. B. DU BOIS TO YOLANDE DU BOIS

BERTRAND RUSSELL TO SIR OSWALD MOSLEY

LILI ELVENES TO CHRISTIAN

BERTHA BREWSTER TO DAILY TELEGRAPH

J. K. ROWLING TO STEVEN ARMES

THOMAS WOLFE TO MAXWELL PERKINS

JACK LONDON TO ANNA STRUNSKY

URSULA LE GUIN TO JOHN RADZIEWICZ

LORINA BULWER

DAVID BOWIE TO SANDRA DODD

SAMUEL GOLDWYN TO WALT DISNEY

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH TO ROBERT SOUTHEY

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED to HIS SON

DAISY WHITE TO JOEL WHITE

CASSANDRA AUSTEN TO FANNY KNIGHT

EDITH WHARTON TO W. M. FULLERTON

HUGH DOWDING TO WINSTON CHURCHILL

RICHARD HELMS TO DENNIS HELMS

MICHELANGELO DI LODOVICO BUONARROTI SIMONI TO GIOVAN SIMONE BUONARROTI SIMONI

DYLAN THOMAS TO CAITLIN THOMAS

JANE AUSTEN TO CASSANDRA AUSTEN

BILL BERNBACH TO HIS COLLEAGUES

HUNTER S. THOMPSON TO ANTHONY BURGESS

JOHN LENNON TO ERIC CLAPTON

BRAM STOKER TO WALT WHITMAN

NANNI TO EA-NASIR

BREECE DJ PANCAKE TO JOHN CASEY

ERIC IDLE TO JOHN MAJOR

MARGARET MEAD TO ELIZABETH MEAD

ETHEL AND JULIUS ROSENBERG TO THEIR SONS

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY TO LULU

MINNIE PARRISH TO BLUE-GRASS BLADE

ALAN TURING TO NORMAN ROUTLEDGE

MOZART TO MARIANNE

DAWN POWELL TO MABEL POWELL POCOCK AND PHYLLIS POWELL COOK

RICHARD FEYNMAN TO KOICHI MANO

EMILY DICKINSON TO SUSAN DICKINSON

PETER SELLERS TO SPIKE MILLIGAN

ABIGAIL ADAMS TO HER DAUGHTER

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT TO DAR

ALFRED KAHN TO HIS COLLEAGUES

ANTHONY HOLLANDER TO BLUE PETER

MICHAEL J. MOLLOY TO JEFFREY BERNARD

CHARLES BUKOWSKI TO JOHN MARTIN

CARL JUNG TO JAMES JOYCE

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE TO WILLIAM BOWMAN

FELICIA BERNSTEIN TO LEONARD BERNSTEIN

CHARLES LAMB TO JACOB VALE ASBURY

KATHERINE MANSFIELD TO ELIZABETH BIBESCO

KURT VONNEGUT TO XAVIER HIGH SCHOOL

MARTHA GELLHORN TO ERNEST HEMINGWAY

SPIKE MILLIGAN TO GEORGE HARRISON

CHARLOTTE BRONT TO W. S. WILLIAMS

HOWARD CRUSE TO DR. SEUSS (AND VICE VERSA)

VICTOR HUGO to M. DAELLI

CHARLES JACK PRICE TO HIS STAFF

SOPHIE SCHOLL TO LISA REMPPIS

BARNUM BROWN TO PROFESSOR OSBORN

BUCKMINSTER FULLER TO ISAMU NOGUCHI

NORMAN MAILER TO HIS FATHER

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE TO RICHARD WAGNER

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS TO JOSEPH BREEN

JUAN GELMAN TO HIS GRANDCHILD

EVELYN WAUGH TO LAURA WAUGH

CLAUDIA SEVERA TO SULPICIA LEPIDINA

KATHERINE ANNE PORTER TO HART CRANE

THE FBI TO PRIORITY RECORDS

ANSEL ADAMS TO NANCY NEWHALL

CHE GUEVARA TO HIS CHILDREN

JESSICA MITFORD TO HERSELF

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE TO DON DELILLO

MILADA HORKOV to HER DAUGHTER

MATT STONE TO THE MPAA

HENRY JAMES to 270 FRIENDS

ANDY SMITH TO RONALD REAGAN

W. C. LATHROP TO THOMAS EDISON

CAPTAIN REGINALD JOHN ARMES TO HIS WIFE

Friday

Dear Reader,

Its two years since my last letter to you, two long years since I was introducing the first volume of Letters of Note to the world, unbearably excited and overwhelmingly proud to finally be waving off the physical incarnation of a mammoth four year project that began as a website. More than anything, though, I was nervous, for here was I, in the fast-moving digital age of ebook readers and emails, trying to captivate the plugged-in population with a hardcover book on the subject of old-fashioned correspondence. Letters of Note already had a dedicated following from its early days online, but what of the wider publicsurely that was a reach too far? As delighted as I was to be holding such a beautiful book, I feared I was about to swim against a pixelated tide.

Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong, and to say the past two years have been a whirlwind would be a huge understatement. Indeed it is a testament to the enduring, universal appeal of letters and the stories they tell that the first book is now being enjoyed in all corners of the world, in many different languages, by people of all ages and backgrounds and persuasions, and thinking about the power of letters, to see such a positive reaction has been indescribably gratifying, and to imagine that even a small fraction of you may have been inspired to write your own letters makes every single second of those years of research worthwhile. And this is all without mentioning Letters Live, a series of events inspired by the book in which a diverse cast of talented performers read these letters of note on stage and breathe life into them in a way I had barely even considered.