Overview

The author of the much-admired Tolstoy and the Purple Chair goes on a quest through the history of letters and her own personal correspondence to discover and celebrate what is special about the handwritten letter. Hailed as witty, moving, enlightening, and inspiring, Signed, Sealed, Delivered begins with Nina Sankovitch's discovery of a trove of hundred year-old letters. The letters are in an old steamer trunk she finds in her backyard and include missives written by a Princeton freshman to his mother in the early 1900s. Nina's own son is heading off to Harvard, and she hopes that he will write to her, as the Princeton student wrote to his mother and as Nina wrote to hers. But times have changed. Before Nina can persuade her child of the value of letters, she must first understand for herself exactly what it is about letters that make them so significant--and just why she wants to receive letters from her son. Sankovitch sets off on a quest through the history of letter writing--from the ancient Egyptians to the medieval lovers Abelard and Heloise, from the letters received by President Lincoln after his son's death to the correspondence of Edith Wharton and Henry James. Sankovitch uncovers and defines the specific qualities that make letters so special, examining not only historical letters but also the letters in epistolary novels, her husband's love letters, and dozens more sources, including her son's brief reports from college on the weather and his allowance. In this beautifully written book, Nina Sankovitch reminds us that letters offer proof and legacy of what is most important in life: love and connection. In the end, she finds, the letters we write are even more important than the ones we wait for.

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9781451687163

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Reviews

How sad to think our children may never get a letter from a friend or a lover, the art of both--the sentiment and penmanship--fading away like an old Polaroid. Nina Sankovitch's lovely, elegant book about the intimacy of letters is rich with treasures from politicians, soldiers, mothers, prisoners, husbands, and wooers. It is a joy to read, savor, and remember. --Lesley Stahl, author of Reporting Live

How sad to think our children may never get a letter from a friend or a lover, the art of both the sentiment and penmanship fading away like an old Polaroid. Nina Sankovitch s lovely, elegant book about the intimacy of letters is rich with treasures from politicians, soldiers, mothers, prisoners, husbands, and wooers. It is a joy to read, savor, and remember. --Lesley Stahl, author of Reporting Live

I challenge you to stop reading <i>Signed, Sealed, Delivered</i> after the Queen of Bohemia's flame to the Earl of Carlisle which begins Thou ugly, filthy, camel's face... I know I couldn't. --Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind and Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Ge

Author Information

Nina Sankovitch is the acclaimed author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, selected by Oprah as a ""book to read now,"" and a contributing writer for the Huffington Post. She is married and lives in Connecticut.

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