LETTER WRITING 



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LETTER WRITING 



and possessing much of the charm of spoken 

 conversation. The term epistle is sometimes 

 applied to more formal productions which are 

 written in letter style, but which are really a 

 setting forth of the author's views intended for 

 publication. This distinction is not always ad- 

 hered to, however. 



Very early examples of letters are extant, 

 among them the famous Amarna Letters in 

 cuneiform characters, but the difficulty of 

 transmission limited such communications to 

 those on topics of the utmost importance. 

 Among the Greeks they became somewhat 

 more common, and the world possesses letters 

 of Socrates, Aristotle and Demosthenes. The 

 personal note was not particularly strong in 

 any of these, but the Romans, notably Cicero, 

 produced letters which approached much more 

 closely the modern manner. All of these an- 

 cient letters, of whatever type they may be, 

 are of great value in the study of history and 

 civilization. The Epistles in the Bible are in 

 part personal letters, in part more formal docu- 

 ments. 



To those who are interested in the real lives 

 and personalities of famous people, no form of 

 literature is more attractive than the letters 

 which in modern times have been published in 

 large numbers. No one, for instance, can 

 really understand Swift who has not read, along 

 with his bitter satires, the Journal to Stella, 

 with its charming and intimate nonsense. 



Among Swift's contemporaries who wrote nota- 

 ble letters are Pope, Lady Mary Wortley 

 Montague, Bolingbroke and Arbuthnot; Ches- 

 terfield's letters to his son, written with the 

 purpose of forming the young man's manners, 

 are remarkable for the ease and grace of their 

 style. Somewhat later, Cowper wrote letters 

 which are among the most charming ever pub- 

 lished, their quiet humor making even more 

 pathetic the gloom with which the poet's life 

 was overcast. 



In the nineteenth century, special attention 

 was paid to letters, and few indeed were the 

 famous men and women whose correspondence 

 was not published after their death. These 

 letters are, of course, of all styles, those of 

 George Eliot, Lamb, Byron, Dickens, Mrs. 

 Carlyle, Lowell and Stevenson having each a 

 charm of their own. Dickens' correspondence 

 shows a sprightly humor, a keenness of ob- 

 servation and a zest for life as great as is 

 shown anywhere in his novels, while Steven- 

 son's Vailima Letters present an inspiring pic- 

 ture of an heroic man working against great 

 odds. 



Epistles in verse have been popular at times 

 since the age of Horace, the great master of 

 that form, but these are usually essays or ser- 

 mons on philosophical or moral topics rather 

 than true letters. In English, Pope made the 

 greatest success with this somewhat artificial 

 form of verse. A.MCC. 



ER WR ING 



ETTER WRITING. Letter writing 

 is the most common form of composition. 

 After leaving school one is seldom called upon 

 to write essays, but scarcely a week goes by 

 when one does not have occasion to write one 

 or more letters. There is not an occupation 

 or a condition of life that does not require the 

 writing of letters. 



Underlying Principles. An understanding of 

 the following principles is essential to all good 

 letter writing: 



1. Correct English. A person will not write 

 more correctly than he speaks, and a knowl- 

 edge of correct letter writing is impossible 

 without an understanding of correct English 

 forms and idioms and of the rules governing 

 the construction of sentences. The first step 

 in acquiring the art of letter writing is there- 

 fore a thorough study of English. For direc- 

 tions for this study see LANGUAGE, subtitle 

 Steps in the Study of Language; also GRAM- 

 MAR. 



