Table of Contents
Introduction xv
001 One's Drop Scones 2
Queen Elizabeth II to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
002 From Hell 8
Jack the Ripper to George Lusk
003 Wind the Clock 10
E. B. White to Mr Nadeau
004 I Am to be Executed 12
Mary Stuart to Henry III of France
005 I Hear You Like Tomato Soup 18
William P. MacFarland to Andy Warhol
006 I Wonder What Your True Beliefs Really Are 19
Bill Hicks to a priest
007 The Wilderness 22
Wallace Stegner to David E. Pesonen
008 O God for One More Breath 29
Jacob Vowell to Sarah Ellen
009 The Elephant Man 31
Francis Carr-Gomm to The Times
010 I Like Words 36
Robert Pirosh to various
011 I Can't Fight Any Longer 38
Virginia Woolf to Leonard Woolf
012 Into Eternity 40
Vilma Grünwald to Kurt Grünwald
013 As Dire as its Title 42
Ian Main to Head of Comedy and Light Entertainment
014 I Stand Astounded and Appalled 43
Charles Dickens to The Times
015 Fifty Lady Sharpshooters Await 46
Annie Oakley to US President William McKinley
016 To Hell with Hitler 48
Patrick Hitler to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
017 Don't Shake My Tree 51
Shirley Jackson to a disgruntled reader
018 How I Would Like to Work for You! 52
Eudora Welty to The New Yorker
019 I Will Be There in the Trees 54
Kathleen Keyes to The Irish Times
020 Five Accidents in Two Minutes 55
Fred Allen to the State of New York Insurance Department
021 To My Old Master 57
Jourdon Anderson to Patrick Henry Anderson
022 My Good Friend Roosvelt 60
Fidel Castro to US President Franktin O. Roosevelt
023 A Man Has to be Something; He Has to Matter 64
Hunter S. Thompson to Hume Logan
024 I Beg You to Take My Child 68
Various Mothers to The Foundling Asylum
025 Thou Eunuch of Language 72
Robert Burns to a critic
026 A Personal Letter from Steve Martin 73
Steve Martin to Jerry Carlson
027 Is it a Disgrace to be Born a Chinese? 74
Mary Tape to San Francisco Board of Education
028 O.M.G. 76
John Arbuthnot Fisher to Winston Churchill
029 Don't Let Anybody Raise You 77
Maya Angelou to herself
030 God Damn It, I Split It So It Will Stay Split 78
Raymond Chandler to Edward Weeks
031 I Shall Be Waiting for You 80
Lady Shigenari to Kimura Shigenari
032 My Muse Is not a Horse 83
Nick Cave to MTV
033 Our Frank 84
The Connell Family to The Ciulla Family
034 I Am Not Afraid of Robots. I Am Afraid of People 86
Ray Bradbury to Brian Sibley
035 DO 88
Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse
036 What Did You Say? I Can't Hear You… 95
Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy
037 The AX 98
Charles M. Schutz to Elizabeth Swaim
038 I Love My Wife. My Wife Is Dead. 100
Richard Feynman to Arline Feynman
039 You Are Not so Kind as You Used to Be 103
Clementine Churchill to Winston Churchill
040 Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus 104
Virginia O'Hanlon to Editor of the Sun
041 I Have Just Written You a Long Letter 106
Alfred D. Wintle to Editor of The Times
042 Sweetheart Come 108
Emma Hauck to Mark Hauck
043 Avenge My Death 111
Masanobu Kuno to his children
044 Don't Touch His Hair 112
Three Elvis Presley fans to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
045 To: My Widow 114
Robert Scott to Kathleen Scott
046 Put Up Your Dukes and Write! 122
Jack Kerouac to Marlon Brando
047 You Must Know Again My Reluctance to Marry 123
Amelia Earhart to George Putnam
048 I'd Like to Continue TO BE A Good Soldier 124
Eddie Slovik to General Dwight D. Eisenhower
049 The Galilean Moons 126
Galileo Galilei to Leonardo Donato
050 The Birch Bark Letters 128
Gavrila Posenya to various
051 To a Top Scientist 129
Dents Cox to a top scientist
052 Deep Sickness Seized Me 132
Lucy Thurston to Mary Thurston
053 He's Here, Living and Vivid and Unforgettable Forever 137
Stewart Step to The Winslows
054 I Miss My Biggest Heart 140
Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert
055 Your End is Approaching 142
Unknown to Martin Luther King, Jr
056 A Most Important Discovery 144
Francis Crick to Michael Crick
057 The Skills of Leonardo Da Vinci 153
Leonardo da Vinci to Ludovico Sforza
058 I Am in a State of Shock 156
Flannery O'Connor to a professor of English
059 Federal agent at Large 158
Elvis Presley to US President Richard Nixon
060 Do Not Grieve for Me 164
Fyodor Dostoevsky to Mikhail Dostoevsky
061 17 Million Negroes Cannot Wait for the Hearts of Men to Change 168
Jackie Robinson to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
062 11 Alive…Need Small Boat…Kennedy 170
John F. Kennedy to Allied Forces
063 Oh Christ, The Cook is Dead 172
Spike Milligan to Stephen Gard
064 In Event of Moon Disaster 174
William Satire to H. R. Haldeman
065 The Most Beautiful Death 176
Laura Huxley to Julian and Juliette Huxley
066 Regarding Your Dam Complaint 192
Stephen L. Tvedten to David L. Price
067 Why Explore Space? 196
Or. Ernst Stuhlinger to Sister Mary Jucunda
068 The Struggle Must Continue, for Our Future's Sake 203
Eddie Glaude and Langston Glaude
069 What Gloomy Tidings about the Crabs 206
Patrick Leigh Fermorto Enrica Huston
070 Who Is This Kid? 209
Tom Hanks and George Roy Hill
071 I Wrote a Book Called the Godfather 212
Mario Puzo to Marlon Brando
072 The Result would be a Catastrophe 214
Roger Boisjoly to R. K. Lund
073 All the Ladies Like Whiskers 215
Grace Bedell to Abraham Lincoln
074 I Felt the Risk of Being Overwhelmed by Giger 220
James Cameron to Leslie Barany
075 How Could You Go Ahead of Me? 222
A Widow to Eung-Tae Lee
076 I Am the Servant of the King 224
Ayyab to Amenhotep IV
077 I Shall Always Be Near You 226
Sullivan Ballou to Sarah Ballou
078 I'm Still Someplace 232
Uncle Lynn to Peggy, Dorothy, Chuck and Dick Jones
079 The Birth of Bonfire Night 234
Unknown to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle
080 We are the Gift 236
Melissa Harris Perry to Richard Mourdock
081 Forget Your Personal Tragedy 238
Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald
082 I Was Meant to be a Composer 241
Samuel Barber to Marguerite Barber
083 Permission to Land 242
Buang-Ly to USS Midway
084 Say Yes I Need a Job 244
Tim Schafer to David Fox
085 We No Longer Have Any Right to Remain Silent 246
36 American writers to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
086 Kipling's Hints on Schoolboy Etiquette 248
Rudyard Kipling to Editors of the Horsmonden School Budget
087 Sex Does Not Thrive on Monotony 250
Anaïs Nin to The Collector
088 KISS MY ASS 252
Bill Baxley to Edward R. Fields
089 The Heiligenstadt Testament 253
Ludwig van Beethoven to his brothers
090 Pay It Forward 258
Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Webb
091 Also 260
Lady Elizabeth Compton to Lord William Compton
092 I Was Ready to Sink into the Earth with Shame 264
Form letter
093 Sorrow Passes and We Remain 266
Henry James to Grace Norton
094 It Will Prove Invincible 268
Philip K. Dick to Jeff Walker
095 The Difference between Us Is Very Marked 269
Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman
096 New Rubbish Dialogue 270
Alec Guinness to Anne Kaufman
097 I Refuse to be Cheated Out of My Deathbed Scene 277
Rebecca West to H. G. Wells
098 Obscene and Sacrilegious 279
Lord Bernard Delfont to Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings
099 Wretched Woman! 280
Jermain Loguen to Sarah Logue
100 This 15 No Drill 284
CINCPAC to all ships
101 Dear 8 Year-Old Teresa 285
Wil Wheaton to Teresa Jusino
102 What A Dandy Car You Make 286
Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford
103 Love, Dad 288
Ronald Reagan to Michael Reagan
104 We Are Sinking Fast 290
Titanic to SS Birma
105 An Incredible Coincidence 292
Robert T. Lincoln to Richard W. Gilder
106 Pixar Films Don't Get Finished, They Just Get Released 295
Pete Docter to Adam
107 May We All Get Better Together 298
Charles Bukawski to Hans van den Broek
108 We All Feel Like That Now and Then 300
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to Lord Reginald Pembroke
109 It Was Hard to Give Five Sons to the Navy 301
Alleta Sullivan to US Navy
110 Nothing Good Gets Away 304
John Steinbeck to Thorn Steinbeck
111 The Great Fire of London 306
James Hicks to his fellow postmasters
112 It Is Like Confessing a Murder 308
Charles Darwin to Joseph D. Hooker
113 Hardly One. Hardly One 315
Arthur C. Fifield to Gertrude Stein
114 John Lennon Signed My Album 316
Mark Chapman to a memorabilia expert
115 Out of All This Came Happiness 318
Diana Athill to Bibi Lynch
116 My Wick Hath a Thief in It 320
Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton
117 Vote for Me I Will Help You Out 322
John Beaulieu to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
118 Do Scientists Pray? 326
Albert Einstein to Phyllis
119 For the Sake of Humanity 328
Mohandas Gandhi to Adolf Hitler
120 I Have Not Shot Her Yet 329
Dorothy Parker to Seward Collins
121 Letter to a Young Poet 333
Rainer Maria RiLke to Franz Kappus
122 What Great Births You Have Witnessed! 335
Mark Twain to Walt Whitman
123 Einstein's One Great Mistake 340
Albert Einstein to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
124 Come Quick To Me 342
Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald
125 Art Is Useless Because… 344
Oscar Wilde to Bernutf Clegg
126 I Leave it in Your Capable Hands 349
Mick Jaggerto Andy Warhol
127 Slaughterhouse-Five 350
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr to Kurt Vonnegut
128 My Dungeon Shook 354
James Baldwin to his nephew
Index 359
Acknowledgements 361
Permission Credits 363
A Note about the Typefaces 367
