![To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/f/351/408/9781592408351.ME.0.m.jpg)
To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing Hardcover - 2013
by Garfield, Simon
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
Description
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Details
- Title To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing
- Author Garfield, Simon
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Edition
- Condition Used - Near Fine
- Pages 464
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Gotham Books, New York
- Date 2013
- Illustrated Yes
- Bookseller's Inventory # 061071
- ISBN 9781592408351 / 1592408354
- Weight 1.4 lbs (0.64 kg)
- Dimensions 8.6 x 6.1 x 1.3 in (21.84 x 15.49 x 3.30 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Library of Congress subjects Letter writing, Interpersonal communication
- Dewey Decimal Code 808.6
Summary
Few things are as excitingand potentially life-changingas discovering an old letter. And while etiquette books still extol the practice, letter writing seems to be disappearing amid a flurry of e-mails, texting, and tweeting. The recent decline in letter writing marks a cultural shift so vast that in the future historians may divide time not between BC and AD but between the eras when people wrote letters and when they did not. So New York Times bestselling author Simon Garfield asks: Can anything be done to revive a practice that has dictated and tracked the progress of civilization for more than five hundred years?
In To the Letter, Garfield traces the fascinating history of letter writing from the love letter and the business letter to the chain letter and the letter of recommendation. He provides a tender critique of early letter-writing manuals and analyzes celebrated correspondence from Erasmus to Princess Diana. He also considers the role that letters have played as a literary device from Shakespeare to the epistolary novel, all the rage in the eighteenth century and alive and well today with bestsellers like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. At a time when the decline of letter writing appears to be irreversible, Garfield is the perfect candidate to inspire bibliophiles to put pen to paper and create a form of expression, emotion, and tactile delight we may clasp to our heart.”