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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sifting Through Love Letters Of The Past

(Flickr/SYangPhoto)

(Flickr/SYangPhoto)

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we read through love missives from history, including those between medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard, President Woodrow Wilson and Edith Galt, and playwright Anton Chekov and actress Olga Knipper.

Thomas Mallon, the author of “Yours Ever: People and Their Letters,” takes us through the letters.  Our conversation originally aired last year.

Other stories from Wednesday's show

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

  • Firecooklmp

    Was just listening to your story on love letters. My husband is currently running a “real-time” blog of his late parents’ courtship letters from 1949-1951 New York (she was in school in NYC, he was living & working in the Hamptons). Take a look at juneandart.blogspot.com
    Lisa in NJ

  • Johncharlespierce

    There is a museum in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia, that is dedicated to broken relationships. Now, I have not been there yet, but that must be interesting to you’all.

  • Anonymous

    At the very end of your conversation about love letters, you mentioned not being able to tie up emails in a bundle and keep them. When my husband and I were first dating back in 1996, we communicated a lot by email. After a few months of dating, I went back through my emails, both the sent and received messages, and printed out our emails to each other. I still have these printed pages saved in a folder in a special box. I haven’t thought about those pages in a long time, but I’m glad I have them. They are a sweet reminder of the beginning of our relationship. Not tied with a ribbon, but still kept and special.

  • Barb12kp

    After 53 years, I was cleaning out my parents’ home preparing it for sale. In the attic, in a small locked box, were the hundreds of love letters my high school boyfriend sent me during his first and second years of college. I remember the excitement of coming home from school to see if I had gotten mail, and the joy of opening a letter and devouring the contents. He wrote at least three times a week. Opening the box and finding all those pages and cards opened my heart to all those intense memories. I could not bear to read the letters again…….but I certainly could not throw them away. That locked box……the physical representation of joy, passion, first love…..is safely tucked away in my house.

    Barbara Blonsky
    Mt. Laurel, NJ

    • Private Sector Frog

      Wonderful story! Thank you.

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