Description
Book SynopsisMore Letters of Note is another rich and inspiring collection, which reminds us that much of what matters in our lives finds its way into our letters.
These letters deliver the same mix of the heartfelt, the historically significant, the tragic, the comic and the unexpected. Discover Richard Burton's farewell note to Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Keller's letter to The New York Symphony Orchestra about 'hearing' their concert through her fingers, the final missives from a doomed Japan Airlines flight in 1985, David Bowie's response to his first piece of fan mail from America and even Albus Dumbledore writing to a reader applying for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts.
Including letters from:
Jane Austen, Richard Burton, Helen Keller, Alan Turing, Albus Dumbledore, Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry James, Sylvia Plath, John Lennon, Gerald Durrell, Janis Joplin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Janis Joplin, Hunter S. Thompson, C. G. Jung, Katherine Mansfield, Marge Simpson, David Bowie, Dorothy Parker, Buckminster Fuller, Beatrix Potter, Che Guevara, Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte Brontë and many more.
Trade ReviewAnother mailbag stuffed with funny, heartbreaking and passionate letters ... engaging, eclectic, geekily and gleefully enthusiastic and laugh-out-loud funny * * The Times * *
Funny, shocking and poignant,
More Letters of Note must be one of the most entertaining books of the year * * Financial Times * *
From the genuinely funny: Marge Simpson duelling with First Lady Barbara Bush to the truly heart-breaking: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's last goodbye to their children before execution. Usher's book is unlike anything else you have read. After all, where else can you find out why Norman Mailer refused money to his father, or how Janis Joplin felt before breaking America? Exactly * * GQ * *
Shaun Usher's
More Letters of Note mines the archives for more gems of the epistolary arts * * Guardian * *
Some of the letters will make you laugh, other heartbreaking examples will make you cry * * Independent * *
Reading through them is addictive, like dipping into a bag of variously tempting assorted candies, knowing that the next one will always bring surprise and pleasure. Usher has an evident knack for selecting letters that land with the force of a good short story, with personalities and dramatic arcs emerging swiftly, from just a page or two. Many of the writers are famous people, caught in a moment of accessibility and rawness or off-the-cuff virtuosity * * New Yorker * *
A gloriously presented compilation * * Financial Times * *
The literary equivalent of a box of chocolates - bite-sized and pure addictive pleasure . . . The result is beautifully produced, with photographs and colour facsimiles of much of the correspondence. A gorgeous Christmas present * * Sunday Times * *
Full of warmth . . . Wondrous * * Independent * *
Beautiful . . . If you don't find at least something that interests you in this book you are not a proper human being. (And unless you find almost all of it gripping I can't imagine having a conversation with you)
* * Spectator * *
Open the pages of the anthology and the appeal is immediately obvious * * Observer * *
It is inspiring, and often sad, funny, and occasionally quite surreal * * GQ * *
An amazing collection * * Monocle Arts Review * *
Praise for Letters of Note:
Funny, tragic, brilliantly incisive, historic, lyrical, romantic and studiedly offensive, this stupendous compendium of letters ancient and modern is my book of the year. You will never tire of it'
-- STEPHEN FRY
Funny, sad, startling letters * * Daily Telegraph * *
