Foreword By Marian Wright Edelman

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I - Letters of Arrival, Expansion, & Exploration

John Winthrop to His Wife on "Passing through Hell" to Get to the "Heaven" of the New World

Roger Williams to the Town of Providence, Rhode Island on Reconciling Religious Freedom with Common Order

Cotton Mather to his Uncle John Cotton on a Recent Execution of Witches and an Earthquake in Jamaica

William Cobbett to Miss Rachel Smither on This "Miserable" Country and Its "Cheating, Sly, Roguish" Gang of Citizens

John Downe to His Wife in England on America as a Land of Equality and Opportunity

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the Oto Indians on the Purpose of Their Journey

Frithjof Meidell to His Mother on His Search for Gold in California and the Beauty of the Sierra Nevadas

Father Pierre-Jean de Smet to George Thompson on the "Reckless Boldness" of Many Pioneers

Guri Endresen to Relatives in Norway on the "Atrocities of the Indians" on the Frontier

Washakie, a Shoshone Indian, to Governor John W. Hoyt on Being Forced off Their Native Land

William Murphy to His Family in Ireland On His Restlessness in the New World

Walt Whitman to the Town of Santa Fe on the Influence of the "Spanish Character" on America

Elinore Rupert Stewart to Her Former Employer Mrs. Coney on Women as Homesteaders

A Young Immigrant Woman to the "Jewish Daily Forward" on Her Plight as a Shopgirl

Irma Czerner to Eleanor Roosevelt on Helping Her Brother and Mother Escape Nazi Persecution and Immigrate to the U.S.

Two Letters to the "Chicago Defender" on the "Great Northern Migration"

Wallace Stegner to David E. Pesonen on the Dangers of Development to the Natural Environment

Marion Carpenter to His Son, Astronaut Scott Carpenter, on the Eve of Scott's "Great Adventure" Into Space

Part II: Letters of a New Nationtop

Israel Putnam, on Behalf of the Parish of Brooklyn, to the City of Boston on Great Britain's "Intolerable" Boston Port Act

J. Palmer to "All Friends of Liberty" on the First Shots at Lexington and Concord

The Committee of Safety to the "Several Towns in Massachusetts" on the Urgent Need to Raise an Army

Anne Hulton, a "Loyalist Lady," to Mrs. Adam Lightbody on the Rebels' "Horrible Acts" and the "Virtue" of the British

George Washington to Martha Washington on Being Appointed Commander of the Continental Army

Abigail Adams to John Adams on "Remembering the Ladies" in Their Deliberations on the Declaration of Independence

John Adams to Timothy Pickering on Why Thomas Jefferson Was Chosen to Write the Declaration of Independence

John Adams to Abigail Adams on the Signing of the Declaration of Independence

James Mitchell Varnum, at Valley Forge, to Nathanael Greene on the Terrible Conditions They Must Endure

Patrick Ferguson to His Fellow British Soldiers on Defeating the "Mongrel" Rebels

General George Washington to Colonel Lewis Nichola on Why He Does Not Wish to Be King

Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks on His Belief That "There Never Was a Good War or a Bad Peace"

Paul Revere to William Eustis on Deborah Gannett, America's First Woman Soldier

Alexander Hamilton to George Washington on the New Constitution and the Need for a "Strong" and "Energetic" Government

Thomas Jefferson to James Madison on the "Oppressiveness" of an "Energetic" Government and the Need for a "Bill of Rights" in the New Constitution

The Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island to George Washington on Religious Freedom & Washington's Response

Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson on Whether the Statement "All Men Are Created Equal" Includes Blacks As Well

Jefferson's Response

Benjamin Rush to John Adams, Twenty-Five Years After Signing the Declaration of Independence, on All That They Have Accomplished

Part III: Letters of Slavery & The Civil Wartop

President Andrew Jackson to Secretary of War Lewis Cass on the Possibility That South Carolina Will Secede from the Union

Frederick Douglass to His Former Master Capt. Thomas Auld on Freedom, Slavery, and Douglass' Family-Still Enslaved

Douglass to Harriet Tubman on Her Contributions to the Abolitionist Movement

A "Dear Friend" to Harriet Beecher Stowe on the Impact "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Had on Her

Robert E. Lee to His Wife Mary on the "Moral and Political Evil" of Slavery

Abolitionist John Brown to His Pastor on Being "One of the Worst and One of the Best of Men"

Jefferson Davis to Franklin Pierce on the Inevitability of the Civil War

Sullivan Ballou, Before the Battle of Bull Run, to His Wife Sarah on Being "Ready to Fall on the Battlefield" for His Country

President Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley on What He Will and Will Not Do to Win the Civil War

Louisa Alexander to Her Husband Archer on Her Master's Refusal to Let Her Purchase Her Freedom

Lewis Douglass, of the 54th Regiment, to His Fiancee Amelia Loguen on His Regiment's Attack on Ft. Wagner

Hannah Johnson to President Lincoln on Enforcing Equal Treatment of Black Soldiers

President Abraham Lincoln to General "Fighting Joe" Hooker on Hooker's Past Faults and His Present Duties

Union General David Hunter to Jefferson Davis on Executing a Confederate Soldier in Retaliation for the Execution of Every Black Soldier

Henrietta Lee to General Hunter, Demanding to Know Why He Ordered Her House to Be Burned

Confederate General George E. Pickett to La Salle Corbell on the "Blood-Soaked Fields" of Gettysburg

Fugitive Slave Spotswood Rice to His Former Master's Wife Kitty Diggs on Why She Will "Burn in Hell"

Miss Mollie E. to Abraham Lincoln on Wanting to Enlist to "Help Save the Land of the Free"

General William T. Sherman to the Mayor and Councilmen of Atlanta on Why He Must Destroy Their City

General Robert E. Lee to His Army on the South's Surrender

Their General Ulysses S. Grant to His Wife Julia on Showing Mercy Toward the South

Frances Watkins Harper to William Still on the Death of Abraham Lincoln and the End of Slavery

Part IV:Letters of Wartop

Clara Barton to Jessie Gladden on Her Admiration for the American Soldier

Theodore Roosevelt to Mrs. Meloney on "What America Needs" to Be Strong

Adrian Edwards to His Mother on Sacrificing One's Life for Ideals "Greater Than Life Itself"

Helen Keller to Eugene Debs on "The Horror" of War and the Need for a "Socialist Revolution"

Frank Lloyd Wright to Lewis Mumford on Mumford's Public Attack of Wright's Pacifism

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secret Cable to Prime Minister Winston Churchill on December 8, 1941

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to the President on Integrating the Army

An African American Soldier, "George," to His Sister on Fighting "Two Wars" Overseas-Against the Germans and Segregation

Shirley Band, 17, to the "U.S. Coast Guard Magazine" on Wanting to "Aid [Her] Country Directly"

Iwao Matsushita, from an American "Relocation Center," to Attorney General Francis Biddle on Wanting to See His Wife Again

George Saito, of the 442nd Regiment, to His Father on the Death of Calvin Saito

Erwin Blonder to His Father and Brother on Fighting the Germans on the Front Lines

Willson Price, a Navajo "Code Talker," to His Beloved, Rosalie James, on Facing Death and Never Returning to Her

Joseph Fogg to His Parents After Seeing the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany

Harry S. Truman to Irv Kupcinet on Having "No Regrets" About Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

President John F. Kennedy to Soviet Chairman Nikita Khrushchev on Resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis

Columbia Student Mark Rudd to University President Grayson Kirk on Kirk's Support of Vietnam and "American Imperialism"

Bill Clinton to Col. Eugene Holmes on Clinton's Draft Deferment from the Vietnam War

Joseph "Soup" Campbell to Edward Van Every, Jr. Fifteen Years After Van Every's Death in Vietnam

President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev on Improving Relations Between the Two Superpowers

Mary Ewald to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Demanding That He Release Her Son, Thomas

Part V:Letters of Social Concern, Struggle and Contempttop

Masse Hadjo, a Sioux Indian, to the "Chicago Tribune" on the "Morals of the Indians" Versus Those "Practiced by the White Race"

Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Susan B. Anthony on "Establishing Woman on Her Rightful Throne"

Anthony to Stanton on Leaving the "Battle to Another Generation of Women"

Mary Tape to the San Francisco Board of Education on Why Chinese Immigrants Should Be Allowed a Public Education

Mother Jones to Theodore Roosevelt on the Laboring Class and the "Suffering Children in Particular"

Jones to Governor James H. Peabody After His "Dogs of War" Physically Removed Her from His State

W.E.B Du Bois to a Young Schoolgirl, Vernealia Fareira, on the Importance of a Good Education

Margaret Sanger to the Readers of "The Woman Rebel" on Her Right to Express Her Views on Birth Control in America

Nicola Sacco, Writing from Death Row, to His Daughter Ines on His Love for Her

Two Letters to President Franklin D. Roosevelt Pleading for Assistance During the Great Depression

Minnie A. Hardin to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on the "Shiftless" Poor and Her Desire to See Them "Paddle Their Own Canoe, or Sink"

Richard Wright to the "American Mercury" on His Scathing Review of Wright's Native Son

Katherine Anne Porter to Dr. William Ross on the "Dangerous Nonsense" of Signing an "Oath of Allegience" to the United States

William Faulkner to David Kirk on "Going Slow" with Integration

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from a Birmingham Jail to the "Fellow Clergymen" Who Publicly Criticized King's Tactics

"Jim," a Student Civil Rights Worker, to His Parents on the Possibility of Encountering Violence in the South

Cesar Chavez to E. L. Barr, President of the California Grape and Tree Fruit League, on the Migrant Worker Boycott

Margie Brauer to Bank Trustee William Yaeger on the Foreclosure of the Brauer Family Farm

Part VI: Letters of Humor and Personal Contempttop

The Indians of the Six Nations to William & Mary College on Why They Will Not Be Sending Their Boys to the College

A Twenty-Nine-Year-Old Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Orville H. Browning on a Disastrous Courtship and Its Surprising Conclusion

Mark Twain to the Gas Company on Their "Chuckleheaded" Policies

Erle Stanley Gardner to "Black Mask Magazine" on His "Damned Good Story"

Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald on Hemingway's Ideal Heaven Versus Fitzgerald's

Edna St. Vincent Millay to the League of American Penwomen on Their "Gross and Shocking Insolence"

Dorothy Thompson to a Flirtatious Admirer of Her Husband, Sinclair Lewis

Fred Allen to Everett Rattray on When to Stop Writing a Letter

Groucho Marx to Warner Bros. On Marx's Film "A Night in Casablanca"

President Harry S. Truman to Music Critic Paul Hume on Hume's Criticism of Margaret Truman's Singing Abilities

A Father Who Lost a Son in the Korean War to President Truman on Truman's Concern for His Daughter's Singing

E.B. White to the ASPCA on Getting His Dog a License

John Steinbeck to His Friend and Editor Pascal "Pat" Covici on the Joys and Frustrations of Writing a Novel

J.B. Lee, Jr to Congressman Ed Foreman on Being Paid by the Government to "Not Raise Hogs"

John Cheever to Josephine Herbst on His Ongoing Feud with "Delmore" the Cat

Cheever to Malcolm Cowley on a Nosy Neighbor

Elvis Presley to President Richard M. Nixon on Helping to Fight Drug Use in America

Lazlo Toth, "Super Patriot," to the Makers of Mr. Bubble on Improving Their Product

A Fed-Up Wife to Ms. Magazine on Her Husband's Chauvinism & What She's Doing About It

Part VII:Letters of Love & Friendshiptop

Benjamin Franklin to a Young Friend on Why Older Women Are Preferable to Younger Ones

Nathaniel Hawthorne to his Fiancee Sophia Peabody on Their Spiritual Marriage

Peabody to Hawthorne on Her Definition of Beauty

Edgar Allan Poe to Annie L. Richmond On Loving Her Only (Two Days After Saying the Same to Sarah Helen Whitman)

Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne on Work, "Moby-Dick," and Their Letters

Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert on Her Distress Upon Not Hearing from Her

Rudger Clawson, Imprisoned Polygamist, to His Second Plural Wife Lydia on His Love for Her and the "Wicked" People who Have Convicted Him

Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore on Loving Her as "No Man Has Ever Loved Before"

Albert Einstein to His "Sweetheart" Mileva Maric on Einstein's Disapproving Parents

Edith Wharton to W. Morton Fullerton on the "Meaning of His Silence"

Georgia O'Keeffe to Anita Pollitzer on Not Getting so Emotional About Life

Agnes von Kurowsky to a Young Ernest Hemingway on Her Not Wanting to Continue Their Relationship

Zelda Sayre to F. Scott Fitzgerald on Wanting Nothing But Him in This World

Ogden Nash to Frances Leonard on Whether or Not She's Heard That He Loves Her

Aline Bernstein to Thomas Wolfe on Her "Deep Love" for Him and Her Desire to Never See Him Again

Gertrude Stein to Carl Van Vechten on This "Wonderful World" and All Its "Nice Stories"

Ansel Adams to Cedric Wright on the True Meaning of Love, Art, and Friendship

Dr. Charles Drew to Lenore Robbins on the Strange Symptoms That Have Come Over Him Since He Met Her

Jack Kerouac to Sebastian Sampas on Living for "Vodka, Love, & Glory!"

Anne Morrow Lindbergh to Charles Lindbergh on Being "Overcome with the Beauty and Richness" of Their Life Together

Ayn Rand to Joanne Rondeau on the "Nonsense" of Selfless Love

John Steinbeck to His Fourteen-Year-Old Son Thom on the Different "Kinds of Love"

Thomas Merton to Henry Miller on Their Physical Resemblance, the Immorality of Being "Totally Sane," and Other Topics

Miller, 87, to Brenda Venus on How Her Love Keeps Him Alive

Ben Washam to Chuck Jones on Being the Only Adult He Likes and Respects

Part VIII: Letters of Familytop

Benjamin and Julia Rush to Their Son John on Morals, Knowledge, Health, and Business

Mary Moody Emerson to Her Nephew Charles Chauncy Emerson on Avoiding Eternal Damnation

James Russell Lowell to His Nephew Charlie on the Importance of Seeing the Beauty of the Natural World

William James to His Dying Father Henry James Sr. Wishing Him a "Blessed Farewell!"

Jack London to His Daughter Joan on Being Morally and Physically "Clean"

Maxwell Perkins to His Young Daughter Jane Asking Her to Be His Valentine

Sherwood Anderson to His Son John on the "Object of Art"

Charles Adams to His Son Ansel on Life, Love, Family, and Happiness

Mrs. Colbert to Her Daughter Jane on the "Great Thrill of Motherhood"

F. Scott Fitzgerald to His Daughter "Pie" on What She Should and Should Not Worry About in Life

Sylvia Plath to Her Mother Aurelia on the "Crosses" Her Mother Has Borne and the Strength She Can Give Her

James Baldwin to His Nephew James on Surviving in a "White Man's World"

David Rothenberg to His Mother on Being Gay and Wanting to Be Accepted for Who He Is

Anne Sexton to Her Daughter Linda on "Living to the HILT!"

Ita Ford to Her Niece Jennifer Sullivan on Finding in Life "Something Worth Living and Dying For"

Allison West to His Daughter Tracey on Her New Baby and His Love for Her

Michele Song to Her Birthmother on Whether They Will Ever Meet

Part IX: Letters of Death & Dyingtop

Benjamin Franklin to Elizabeth Hubbart on His Belief That a "Man Is Not Completely Born Until He Be Dead"

Alexander Hamilton to His Wife Eliza Before His Duel with Aaron Burr

Thomas Jefferson to John Adams on the Death of Mrs. Adams

Henry David Thoreau to Ralph Waldo Emerson on Death and Nature

Harriet Beecher Stowe to Her Husband on the Death of Their Baby Boy, Charley

John A. Copeland to His Family on His Impending Execution

Abraham Lincoln to a Young Girl, Fanny McCullough, on the Death of Her Father, Lt. Col. William McCullough

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) to His friend Joe Twichell on the Death of Clemens's Beloved Daughter Susy

Ambrose Bierce to His Niece Lora on How He Wishes to Depart This World

Eugene O'Neill to His Wife Agnes on the Death of His Father, the Only "Good Man" He Ever Knew

Archibald MacLeish to His Mother on the Death of His Younger Brother Kenny

Will Rogers to His Old Friend Charles Russell Who Had Recently Passed Away

Amelia Earhart to Her Parents on the Chance She Might Be Killed During One of Her Flights

Edmund Wilson to William Rose Benet on the Death of Benet's Wife Elinor

Wylie John Boetigger to His Wife Virginia on Why He Must End His Life

Rachel Carson, Stricken with Cancer, to Dorothy Freeman on the "Regrets, Rewards, and Satisfactions" of Her Life

Elizabeth Bishop to U.T and Joseph Summers on the Death of Her Lover

Lota Norma Shumpert and Chris B. to the NAMES Project Foundation on Losing Their Loved Ones to the Disease

Part X:Letters of Faith & Hopetop

Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Huey on the Importance of "Good Works" and "Serving Others"

Col. G. W. Clarke to the Editor of the "Arkansas Intelligencer" on a Donation Sent by the Choctaw Indians to the Irish During the Potato Famine

Henry James to Grace Norton on Enduring Sorrow and Appreciating the "Gift of Life"

Mark Twain to Walt Whitman on All That Humanity Has Accomplished in Whitman's Lifetime and All That Is Yet to Be

Francis P. Church, Editor of "The New York Sun," to Virginia O'Hanlon on the "Wonders of the Unseen World"

Rabbi Stephen Wise to His Wife Louise on Faith, Mercy, and Justice

Eugene V. Debs to Clara Spalding Ellis on the "Immortal Life of Humanity"

Edgar Farrar Sr. to the Governor of Louisiana, Luther E. Hall, on Sparing the Life of His Son's Murderer

Albert Einstein to Phyllis Wright on Whether or Not Scientists Pray

Dorothy Day's "Letter to the Unemployed" on Maintaining Faith and Hope in Desperate Times

Lester B. Granger of the National Urban League to Sylvan Gotshal of the United Jewish Appeal on Being "One People United in One Cause"

Flannery O'Connor to Alfred Corn on Losing and Regaining Faith

William Lederer to Admiral David McDonald on a Sailor Who Knew the True Meaning of Christmas

Thomas Merton to Chris McNair on the Death of McNair's Daughter in the September 1963 Church Bombing in Alabama

Malcolm X, in the Holy Land, to His Followers on the Possibility for Peace and Goodwill Between Blacks and Whites

Marion Lee Kempner, Fighting in Vietnam, to His Great-Aunt on Immortality

Norman Mailer to Salman Rushdie on Enduring Death Threats After Writing "The Satanic Verses"

Luis Rodriguez to the Young Men of the Illinois Youth Center on Being "True Warriors" for Justicetop

Buy this book. | Home | Foreword | About the author. | What people are saying.

Table of Contents

0. letter of recommendation writing service

I. Letters of Arrival, Expansion, & Exploration

II. Letters of a New Nation

III. Letters of Slavery & the Civil War