Simply Embellished

I came across the information for my previous post about the Doth Brands' Red newsletter on handwritten notes through Cole Imperi's website/blog Simply Embellished. She wrote the newsletter articles on letter writing and linked to it on her personal site.

Simply Embellished is a lovely website. There, Cole writes about crafts and gardening and food and letter writing. She reviews pens and paper and wax seals. Drop by and see what she has to say!

Download Free Stationery

Doth Brands is a "branding and identity studio" based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that seems to appreciate the value of a handwritten letter. The Autumn 2011 issue of Red: Doth Brands' Quarterly Journal is dedicated to the handwritten letter.

The online newsletter has articles on handwriting, letter samples and even free stationery to download and print yourself. (Note: The stationery is in pdf form, and the customizing you'll want to do works best if you have Adobe Reader. If you don't already have Adobe Reader, you can download it for free.)

Reviving the art of letter writing

At the Electric Literature website, each month, Anna Knoebel posts "letters from prominent writers and other artists." This must be a new series, because I can only find two letters posted...one from September and one from earlier this month.

My favorite is the letter by Harper Lee, but maybe that's because "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably my favorite book. 

The stories Knoebel has written are well worth your time to read. I enjoyed them!

Great Column About Letter Writing

In "Remember When We Used to Write?" David Bangert writes about the letters he used to write to his friend Tom. Bangert is a columnist for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana. His address is listed at the end of the column, in case you're interested in writing him a letter.

Saving the U.S. Postal Service

If you're interested in writing and mailing letters, postcards, mailart, packages, etc., you've probably heard about the issues the U.S. Postal Service is facing. According to a postal service representative who spoke at a small post office in a nearby town last week, the USPS is looking at closing 3,700 post offices this year. You can read the local story in the Lake Country Sun newspaper (you may have to scroll down a little bit).

The plan also includes the elimination of thousands of USPS jobs, city carrier routes and rural routes. There's a real possibility that this could affect you and maybe even your business, if you depend on the postal service for mailing products, invoices, etc.

There are a few blogs and websites that are staying on top of the situation. Check them out when you can:

Save the Postal Service White House Petition
Save the Post Office blog
Save America's Postal Service website
Send the Love support and idea page

(Photo from the USPS.com site's Newsroom)

In your letter - Reo Speedwagon

Back when this blog first started, we tried to think of songs, books, movies, etc. that were about letter writing. Here's a "classic" letter song! Enjoy the trip back to 1980.

Article discusses results of less letter writing

An article released today by the Associated Press addresses the issue of the decline in letter writing (for a slightly different version of the story, look here). Writer Randolph E. Schmid looks at the topic from the aspect of the post office, as well as from a historical perspective.

In part, one version of the article says:

The loss to what people in the future know about us today may be incalculable.

In earlier times the "art" of letter writing was formally taught, explained Webster Newbold, a professor of English at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

"Letters were the prime medium of communication among individuals and even important in communities as letters were shared, read aloud and published," he said. "Letters did the cultural work that academic journals, book reviews, magazines, legal documents, business memos, diplomatic cables, etc. do now. They were also obviously important in more intimate senses, among family, close friends, lovers, and suitors in initiating and preserving personal relationships and holding things together when distance was a real and unsurmountable obstacle."

The full article is an interesting read.

I do wonder...how will the decline in letter writing affect future generations' comprehension of the past. What do you think?