Friends make everything better and easier. As much as we’re given messages about the importance of self-reliance and looking out for No. 1, it never hurts to have people who have our back – and have theirs.
You do have to admit it is trickier to hang onto friendships in adulthood, especially since we’re not stuck with classmates all day. Longtime co-workers don’t always equate to longtime friends, unfortunately.
Friends can be the ones you share your ups and downs with and still stay in touch with whether you’re in the same room or in separate countries.
Although a lot of friends use email and social media messages for correspondence, this is a relatively new tool. There are a lot of letters of note by famous and less famous friends who kept in touch through the written word.
Letters were – and still can be – a way to express yourself, share your views on the world, and inquire about the other person. Relationships can be strengthened by letters and cards especially some that may have started out small but expanded over the years into deeper reflections and connections.
For many years, letters were the only forms of communication for some– many people understood that they may never meet people they’re writing to in real life.
Letters don’t have to be between famous people either, although these can be interesting, whether they are from Henry VIII to a future wife or Oscar Wilde to a close friend. Some of the more interesting ones come from “ordinary” people whose words and other writings aren’t already in the public record.
Some interesting examples of longtime letters of note about friendship include:
Frank Doel and Helene Hanff
The correspondence started with Helene Hanff, a resident of New York City, wrote to Marks & Co, a book company in London, looking for a difficult-to-find title. The person who answered was Frank Doel, the chief buyer. After answering the initial query, they continued to write to each other, talking about life in the 1940s and 1950s and in different parts of the world. For instance, Frank talked about rationing during and after World War II. The continuing dialogue between them, even with gaps in their timeline, is enjoyable, entertaining and insightful.
Kim Fay and Janet Brown
Both of them initially worked together in Washington State in the 1990s and became friends. Although they both went to study and teach in Asia, they continued to stay in contact with each other. They were always moving around to different countries, and sometimes were back in the United States, but never at the same time. But they continued to talk to each other through regular letters. This gave a glimpse into not only what they were experiencing with cultures in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and even the U.S., including what they were seeing, eating, and drinking, but what they were thinking about their role in their life. Kim even ended up writing a book, interspersing her own narrative with letters from both of them, sharing the strong bond that started mostly as catching up with a traveling friend.
William Carlo Williams and Denise Levertov
What happens when two amazing poets begin conversing, peer to peer? In this case, there are some dramatic conversations occurring in these letters of note. Both of them were established, confident poets but enjoyed long-distance correspondence. Their letters in the 1950s and 1960s touch on literary matters as well as life matters. They talked about what’s happening in their personal lives, but those who are poets or perhaps strive to be one will enjoy them breaking down the best and worst of the form.
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