Letters from the Past

Abial Hall Edwards

I came across an interesting account of some old letters that chronicled the romance of a Civil War soldier and his future wife. The story about the letters of Abial Hall Edwards and Anna Lucinda Conant is on the blog "Maine at War." (I can't find the name of the blog's author on there; maybe I'm just not looking closely enough.)

The blog post is based on a book, “Dear Friend Anna,” published by the University of Maine Press and edited and published by Anna's great-granddaughter, Beverly Hayes Kallgren, and history professor James L. Crouthamel.

“You know not with what pleasure your letters are read and how eagerly they are watched for,” Edwards wrote more than 150 years ago.

Anna Lucinda Conant

Anna saved those letters, and her great-granddaughter recognized their value enough to also save them and to have them published.

I hate to sound so old-fashioned and such, but what will the future hold without letters from the 21st century? Oh, sure, there will be some, mostly from those of us on these blogs. But, there don't seem to be many of us. How much of our history will we lose because there are no letters? Will emails, texts, Facebook postings survive to tell our stories? How?

What do you think? Let me know.

In the meantime, keep on writing letters!

U.S. Postal Holiday Monday

For all of the letter writers in the U.S., remember...Monday, Feb. 18, is Presidents Day, and there will be no postal service. But, that's no reason to be sad...just sit down and write a few more letters to mail out on Tuesday!

Happy letter writing!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Best wishes to all you letter writers and letter receivers out there!

If you haven't written a love letter lately, write one today. Remember, there are all sorts of love letters...not just romantic ones.

If you've written love letters to all the friends and family you can think of but still want to write more, check out this site: The World Needs More Love Letters.

Wonderful post about letters

Douglas Groothuis at the blog The Constructive Curmudgeon wrote a blog post on "Losing Our Letters."

I must say, I didn't find the article to be curmudgeonly at all. In fact, it's rather inspiring. 

Toward the end, he writes: 

 

"Simply because letters are irrepressibly personal, most of us still get a small (but not cheap) thrill from finding a letter in our mail box addressed to us in handwriting (and not machine produced)—a letter that often has a telltale thickness, indicating that it houses several pages, folded and written by human hands."

But, I think you should go read the entire piece. It's quite interesting.

One less day of mail

The U.S. Postal Service announced today that it will discontinue mail delivery on Saturdays.

The new schedule will begin the week of August 5, 2013, and will save the USPS about $2 billion annually.

Packages will continue to be delivered Monday through Saturday, but letters will be delivered only Monday through Friday.

You can read more here. 

What do you think about this?

USPS releases Rosa Parks stamp

Today, the U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp honoring civil rights activist Rosa Parks. The stamp is for  First Class mail "Forever" postage and features a painting of Parks based on a 1950s photo.

In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus, as was required of African Americans at that time. She had the courage to take a stand against the discrimination, leading the fight against racial segregation.

This stamp is part of a new civil rights series. The first stamp in the series was the Emancipation Proclamation stamp issued earlier this year. In August, the series will culminate with the dedication of a stamp recognizing the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington.

For more information about the stamp, click here or here.