The Art of the Personal Letter: A Guide to Connecting Through the Written Word

Product Description

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Or received one in the mail?

These days, it’s so easy to dash off a quick e-mail or text message or make a cell- phone call while you’re on the run that you may rarely make time for letter writing. But letters are a time-honored form of connection that simply cannot be equaled or replaced by faster methods of communication.

The Art of the Personal Letter reclaims this lost art, giving you the gift of leisurely expression and allowing you to write beautiful, enduring letters to the people you care about—be it by hand or on a computer. For any occasion—whether you’re reaching out to connect with a long-lost friend or you want to express condolences with grace—author Margaret Shepherd gives you both the inspiration and the tools to write a memorable and meaningful letter that will be cherished by its recipient for years.

Filled with marvelous examples of common types of letters,
The Art of the Personal Letter provides helpful guidelines to enhance your unique voice and inspire you to start that holiday letter or difficult letter of apology. From choosing just the right words, the right stationery, and even the right pen or font, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the timeless art of the personal letter.

About the Author

Margaret Shepherd is a noted calligrapher and author whose clients include numerous headliners. The author of thousands of personal letters and fourteen hand-lettered instructional books on calligraphy, including the bestselling
Learning Calligraphy, she has exhibited her work in many museums and galleries. She lives in Boston.

Sharon Cloud Hogan has written and edited several books for general readers . She leads workshops on nonfiction writing for physicians, and she is a manuscript editor at
The New England Journal of Medicine.  She lives near Boston.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1
The Art of Connecting
What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters!
You can’t reread a phone call.
—Liz Carpenter
You’re so connected. You check your messages from a gizmo in your pocket, a laptop on your kitchen table, and a desktop in your office. You read e-mail from work while you are at home and personal e-mail on the job. You send out jokes, photos, breaking news, invitations, and announcements. You phone people between classes, on the train, and before a concert. (When you phone from the bus, you always seem to sit next to me!) You leave lots of messages, often timing your calls to avoid actually talking to anybody in person. You buzz your friends’ cell phones with telegraphic short text messages, converse in real-time cyberspace with instant messages, and add a sticky note to any piece of paper you send around.
Although you’ve traded quality for quantity, you’ve still got all your connections covered. You don’t even buy a quart of milk without a quick text message home to see who wants fat-free and who wants 1 percent. Your family and friends know that you’re thinking of them, even when those thoughts only come out as “How r u?” on their cell-phone screens. You may not feel sure that you’ve used exactly the right format for every message, but overall, you’re so connected, you couldn’t be missing anything. Or could you?
In spite of all of your efforts, you may still be missing the most satisfying, expansive, resilient, creative way to keep in touch–the personal letter.
HOW IS A LETTER DIFFERENT
FROM A NOTE?
A personal letter takes longer to write than the few abrupt sentences you bang out without proofreading before you click on “send”; it takes longer to read than the blink-and-delete blitz that helps you purge your in-box; and it digs deeper than the brief handwritten note that you drop in the mail. A letter deals with issues that deserve more than a minute of attention. It aims to strengthen a relationship, not just react to a situation. A letter isn’t limited to a specific message like “Can y