Dear reader

Hey friends,

When was the last time you wrote someone a letter? I sent two last week – one to a friend who left something at my house I needed to send back to her and one to one of my daughters. To be honest, they both accompanied a physical thing I also sent. But I loved choosing a card, writing in this half-script half- print handwriting I seem to have developed over the years, packing them up and sending them off.

For a book I wrote on the founder of the Girl Scouts, I spent days in rare manuscript rooms of the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, reading the letters of Juliette Gordon Low. She would sometimes write six or more in a day, her handwriting covering back and front and margins of a page, along with drawings. Many years ago, I also spent time with the archives of journalist Joseph Alsop researching in the Library of Congress for a book by Robert Merry, “Taking on the World.” I got to know Alsop through his letters and was often surprised at something he said or did that I read in his own writing.

Last week, while interviewing the novelist Jane Hamilton for the Wisconsin Book Festival, she said her letters, many of which begin “Dear Ham,” will be donated to her alma mater, Carleton College, along with all of her writing drafts and papers. We talked about how people don’t write letters anymore, but she has many to add to her archive.

I’ve thought about how we could bring this back, one person at a time. I remember writing letters in high school and college – when did it end? Likely with a change in technology – texting or emailing rather than finding a stamp and a pen, choosing an immediate response rather than waiting days to hear a slower, yet more elaborate note back.

Here’s a challenge – if you are reading this, write a letter, on paper with a pen, to someone. Anyone. And send it. Let me know how it goes.

–   Shannon