The Oxford Book of Letters

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Edited by Frank Kermode and Anita Kermode

Oxford University Press

Due/Published October 2003, 592 pages, paper

ISBN 0192804901

Available again (F03)

Reading other people's letters, like reading private diaries, offers unexpected glimpses into the lives of others, and it is partly this guilty pleasure we take in such literary eavesdropping that makes The Oxford Book of Letters so interesting. With subjects ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the tragic to the hilarious, this volume spans over five centuries and chronicles the affairs of correspondents from Elizabeth I to Groucho Marx, from politicians to poets, from the famous to the unknown.

But whether the writers are educated or barely literate, whether their style is polished and witty or stumbling and artless, these letters display an immediacy and intimacy not shared by any other form of writing. In an age where communication is instant and ephemeral, this volume celebrates the glory of the written word, and what may well be a dying art form.