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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 26/02/2026

On this day in 1977, Cary Grant wrote to his daughter as she turned eleven. (From 'Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best', by Nancy Nelson. With a foreword by Barbara and Jennifer Grant.)

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 12/02/2026

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Lovely piece in today's Observer (no paywall) about @lettersofnote.com's latest, DIARIES OF NOTE, which looks like it'll be as fascinating and well-made as the other books in the series. By Anthony Quinn. observer.co.uk/style/featur...

observer.co.uk

The pages of our lives | The Observer

Diaries can be the most revealing records of who we are. One compulsive diarist introduces the intimate reflections of Audre Lorde, Salvador Dalí, Elton ...

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 01/10/2025

On this day in 1905, Virginia Woolf was doubting her abilities. Her debut novel, The Voyage Out, would be published ten years later.

No one really takes very much interest, why should they, in my scribblings. Do you think I shall ever write a really good book?

Virginia Woolf
Letter to Violet Dickinson
1st October 19051

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 26/08/2025

“I am writing this letter not only to thank you most gratefully, but also to ask you to remember that although I am no longer there, your books are still helping those who have remained.” A heartfelt letter to the Queen of Crime: news.lettersofnote.com/p/your-books...

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Your books are still helping those who have remained

A heartfelt letter of thanks to the Queen of Crime

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 01/08/2025

On this day in 1913, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to a grieving friend. news.lettersofnote.com/p/his-life-h...

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His life has now passed over into yours

Rilke writes to a grieving friend

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nick andersen @nicktheandersen.com · 14/04/2025

this this this... a beautiful letter from sol lewitt to eva hesse, written 60 years ago today ~ DO ~ (via @lettersofnote.com

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Invaluable advice for a struggling artist

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 27/03/2025

Magnificent letterhead once used by Bob Kane, co-creator of Batman www.letterheady.com/p/bob-kane

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listsofnote.bsky.social @listsofnote.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

ELEVEN REASONS TO USE A TYPEWRITER, by Tom Hanks www.listsofnote.com/p/eleven-rea...

listsofnote.com

ELEVEN REASONS TO USE A TYPEWRITER

By Tom Hanks

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 27/03/2025

"I don’t know why people disturb me so much — They make me feel like a hobbled horse." Letters of solitude: news.lettersofnote.com/p/there-is-n...

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There is no one around and I can really breathe

Letters of solitude

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 26/03/2025

"I don’t know so well what I think until I see what I say." The Letters of Flannery O'Connor: news.lettersofnote.com/p/i-dont-kno...

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I don’t know so well what I think until I see what I say

The Letters of Flannery O'Connor

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 23/03/2025

Magnificent stationery once used by Chuck Jones, co-creator of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner www.letterheady.com/p/chuck-jones

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 22/03/2025

Hand-drawn letterhead used by French mime Marcel Marceau www.letterheady.com/p/marcel-mar...

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 17/03/2025

Terrahawks www.letterheady.com/p/terrahawks

Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 15/03/2025

On this day in 1941. (From the book, 'Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera' by Gerry Souter)

"Frankly, I don’t have the least ambition to be anybody. I don’t care for people’s pretentiousness, and I am in no way interested in becoming a “big shit.”"

Frida Kahlo to Dr. Leo Eloesser, 15th March 1941

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 14/03/2025

"I will make an infinite number of items for attack and defence." —Leonardo da Vinci applies for a job: news.lettersofnote.com/p/i-will-mak...

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I will make an infinite number of items for attack and defence

Leonardo da Vinci applies for a job

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 14/03/2025

Al Hirschfeld, 1962 www.letterheady.com/p/al-hirschf...

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listsofnote.bsky.social @listsofnote.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

“Try never get drunk outside yr own house.” —Jack Kerouac’s list of essentials: www.listsofnote.com/p/belief-and...

listsofnote.com

Belief & Technique for Modern Prose

Jack Kerouac's list of essentials

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 09/03/2025

Letterhead and envelope used by Bill Watterson when responding to fan mail: www.letterheady.com/p/bill-watte...

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 06/03/2025

Quite a flex from Nikola Tesla. www.letterheady.com/p/nikola-tes...

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 03/03/2025

A personal favourite. Harpo Marx’s letterhead: www.letterheady.com/p/harpo-marx

Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 28/02/2025

"No, no, no, sir! A thousand times no!" A quite brutal letter from Manuela Sáenz: news.lettersofnote.com/p/no-no-no-s...

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No, no, no, sir! A thousand times no!

Manuela Sáenz slams the door

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Letterheady @letterheady.com · 26/02/2025

The unforgettable letterhead of John Cliff & Associates, 1979: www.letterheady.com/p/john-cliff...

letterheady.com

John Cliff & Associates

1979

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 22/01/2025

"I did not answer that question, for I have no doubt that sooner or later they will find their way, free of charge." —From Sendak's book, 'Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures'

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 16/01/2025

A note David Lynch sent to his parents in 1977, the year Eraserhead was unleashed on the public. (From the excellent book, 'Room to Dream' – by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna. Published in 2018.)

Dear Mom....and Dad, please don't see the film Eraserhead......and Don't tell anyone I did.

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 15/01/2025

On this day in 1972, John Cheever was going through it.

"The day is overcast. It looks like snow. My marriage is in the dumps. I drink vodka for breakfast."

John Cheever
Letter to Tanya
15th January 1972

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 10/01/2025

On this day in 1957, American screenwriter Dalton Trumbo wrote to his daughter as she visited Europe.

"You have, in common with every child who ever grew up, made minor mistakes—I repeat, minor: but are you also aware that regardless of those small concerns we may have felt from time to time about your development (and all parents feel such concern), you have given us so much more happiness than discontent—in a ratio of, roughly, a million to one—that we shall never be able to reward you adequately for having entered our lives.

We wanted you, took measures to have you, got you—and are forever the winners."

Dalton Trumbo
Letter to his 17-year-old daughter, Nikola
10th January 1957

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 09/01/2025

Letter printed in The Times, 1st Jan 2025.

Sir, I can attest to the power of handwriting (letters, Dec 26, 28, 30 & 31). My husband of 62 years and four months died a year ago. He remained my beloved until the end but I found that I couldn’t remember him as he was in his prime, which was distressing. During the Christmas break I found and reread for the first time the hundreds of letters we wrote to each other during our engagement: we lived in different countries, there was no internet, telephone was expensive and the post was cheap.

It is wonderful therapy and a great comfort. I can hear and almost see him as he was then and I find myself falling in love with him all over again.

Aude Fitzsimons
Girton, Cambridge

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 08/01/2025

Happy birthday to this unimprovable bunch of words.

"I met [name redacted] recently—a stooped, coyote-eyed man with small hands, fingers like little sausages and soft as those of an old, old lady. He caresses his fingers in his lap as though they were precious and in danger. To shake hands with him is like touching the teats of an old cow."

John Steinbeck
Letter to Ed Sheehan
8th January 1963

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 07/01/2025

"If you give in, nothing can help you."

"This letter will probably reach you sometime around the New Year and so some New Year’s wishes would be in order. The more I think about it, the more I incline to the opinion that the most important thing of all is not to lose hope and faith in life itself. Anyone who does so is lost, regardless of what good fortune may befall him. . . And so, from the bottom of my heart, my New Year’s wish is that you not lose your hope, faith and ability to delight in the world—even if the world is the way it is. If you can manage that, everything else will come; if you give in, nothing can help you."

Václav Havel
Letter to his wife, Olga
21st December 1980

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 28/12/2024

Virginia Woolf on this day in 1932.

“My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery-always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud.”
Virginia Woolf
Letter to Ethel Smyth
28th December 1932

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 19/12/2024

On this day in 1949. (From 'Edith Sitwell: Selected Letters 1919-1964'.)

"I must say I hope the coming year will be better than the last one, which, I think, was sheer hell."

Edith Sitwell
Letter to John Lehmann
19th December 1949

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 01/12/2024

All other pieces of writing advice can stand down. We have a winner.

“Don’t ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out.”

Charles Bukowski
Letter to Neeli Cherry
20th September 1963

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Kettlewitch @nickylt.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

This is glorious. And the video footage of her being told about the Nobel Prize is so exquisitely British, it feels like it's been directed by Mike Leigh. I'm off to read some of Doris Lessing's works immediately!

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 24/11/2024

“Dame of what?” On this day in 1992, Doris Lessing turned down a damehood by letter: news.lettersofnote.com/p/dame-of-what

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Dame of what?

How to decline an honour

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 19/11/2024

On this day in 1963, Samuel Beckett wrote to a friend whose father had recently died. (From 'No Author Better Served: The Correspondence of Samuel Beckett & Alan Schneider')

November 19th, 1963

My very dear Alan,

I know your sorrow and I know that for the likes of us there is no ease for the heart to be had from words or reason and that in the very assurance of sorrow’s fading there is more sorrow. So I offer you only my deeply affectionate and compassionate thoughts and wish for you only that the strange thing may never fail you, whatever it is, that gives us the strength to live on and on with our wounds.

Ever,
Sam

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