First, I suppose, come letters; then adventure.
— Robert Louis Stevenson
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The Dover collection Books, Reading and Writing Illustrations, which contributed the drawing on page 3 and the ink bottles on page 6, is one of a series of books of vintage illustrations that each come with a DVD of the drawings as files ready to use as clip art. It contains a section of drawings of famous authors as well as scenes of people reading and writing and snippets such as pens and writing hands.
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Mr. Twain's complaint |
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Mark Twain, best known for his Mississippi River books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, lived for a time in California, where he wrote travel letters for the Sacramento Union and other newspapers. This article (formally titled "A Complaint About Correspondents, Dated in San Francisco") was printed in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in 1867. "Mark Twain" was only one of the pen names used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens, although by far the most famous. Some early humorous letters were published under the name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass.
Did Mr. Twain follow his own advice in writing letters? You can check out his complete correspondence at Project Gutenberg or at Powell's.
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| Where it all started |
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There are many sites with collections of Victorian Christmas cards. Here are just a few: victoriana.com; biblicalquality.com; worldcollectorsnet.com; Emotions Greeting Cards; University of Indiana Lilly Library; Victorian Trading Company. The last two sites are among many that will allow you to send your own Victorian Christmas cards electronically. You can also make your own with the clip art in the book shown to the left. The first Christmas card, by Henry Cole (who had been involved in the introduction of the Penny Post – see Issue 17), was hand-colored, and if any of the very few still known to exist come onto the market, you might be able to buy it for $15,000 or so. Reproductions are available for considerably less. Some sources give the date as 1846 (as does the article excerpted in Issue 20), but a more common date claimed is 1843, the year of the first publication of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. According to some sites the card was commissioned in 1843, but not commercially produced until 1846. If you're interested in the full text of the article the history on page 11 was excerpted from, it's on Google books and archive.org. Most of it is a very detailed look at the work of numerous designers.
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| Eediotic Etiquette |
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The humorous book that the postman cartoon on page 15 is taken from is not readily (or affordably) in stores, but you can read it online.
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| The woman who thought in the evening |
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Charlotte Brontë is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, but as these letters to and from Robert Southey show, she also wrote poetry, published (as was Jane Eyre at first) under the name Currer Bell. (Each of the Brontë sisters had a pen name – Anne was Acton Bell, Emily was Ellis Bell, and there's a volume of the combined poetry of all three on Gutenberg.) There are numerous biographies of Charlotte Brontë available, including the one by her personal friend Elizabeth Gaskell. Her letters are also available. The Brontë Society runs the Brontë Parsonage Museum, in the ancestral Brontë house. Ironically, Robert Southey, famous as England's Poet Laureate in Charlotte Brontë's time, is largely forgotten today outside of academic circles, but his books, including collections of his letters, are still available. His house is privately owned and features several guest suites available for rent.
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| Tolkien's Christmas letters |
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There are several publications of J.R.R.Tolkien's Christmas letters to his children, under the names The Father Christmas Letters and Letters from Father Christmas, differing in presentation and cover illustration.
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| Clicking on most of the books on this page will take you to Powell's, the world's largest independent bookstore. You can also use the search engine to the left. Any purchase you make by following one of these links will help support LEX – not just these items but any book or DVD in their inventory. | |
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Copyright 2009