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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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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 · 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 · 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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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')