The Oxford Book of Letters

Reading other people's letters, like reading private diaries, offers thrilling and unexpected glimpses into the lives of others, and it is partly this guilty pleasure we take in such literary eavesdropping that makes The Oxford Book of Letters so compelling. With subjects ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the tragic to the hilarious, this volume spans over five centuries and chronicles the affairs of correspondents from Elizabeth I to Groucho Marx, from politicians to poets, from the famous to the unknown.
But whether the writers are educated or barely literate, whether their style is polished and witty or stumbling and artless, these letters display an immediacy and intimacy not shared by any other form of writing. In an age where communication is instant and ephemeral, this volume celebrates the glory of the written word, and what may well be a dying art form.
"This unusual and intriguing collection offers letters unlikely to be encountered elsewhere.... Leafing through these pages, it is easy to become caught up in the private lives laid open to our view."--The Wall Street Journal

An acclaimed critic, scholar, and author, Frank Kermode was formerly King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge. He has written and edited many books, including Uses of Error (1991), History and Value (1989), The Oxford Anthology of English Literature (with John Hollander, 1973) Shakespeare's Language (2001), and Pleasing Myself: From Beowolf to Philip Roth (2002). Anita Kermode has researched and taught English and American literature at Rutgers University, the University of Cambridge, and Columbia University.