Earlier this month I happened to see the novel "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans on sale on Kindle and bought it. This is now one of my favorite novels. It is hard to put it down. The main character is in her 70s and writes letters on paper. Not emails nor texts, too ephemeral. She even writes paper letters to favorite authors and loves when they answer her. She corresponds with some famous authors. She has a stalker who writes threatening hateful notes to her.
I not only love the main character but I am inspired to write to an author, a physical paper note. The author I chose wrote a memoir recently. I will tell you who I chose after I write the letter. I wrote two letters to favorite authors decades ago and they each wrote back to me! One was Sheldon Vanauken, for his memoir "A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph" of his love for his wife and how he recovered from grief at her death and was guided to be a Christian by correspondence with C.S. Lewis.
The other author I wrote to was Madeleine L'Engle about her 4 memoirs, collectively titled the Crosswicks Journals. I wrote to her just using Crosswicks Connecticut as her address and she wrote back. All 4 Crosswicks Journals memoirs are brilliant and The Summer of the Great-Grandmother a favorite for me. She is famed for many novels including "A Wrinkle in Time" which was made into a movie.
If you have written to authors or other celebrities please tell me in your comments. Let me know if they answered you or not. I am curious.
In the late 1980's I discovered the watercolor recipe books from Susan Branch. I sent her a fan letter and received a postcard response that I still hold dear. She has a website now and I have commented on her posts. A few years ago I mentioned (in her hundreds of comments) that I had talked my husband into taking me to her book signing over 60 miles away for our anniversary. When I gave her my name at the signing she exclaimed Happy Anniversary. I will tell you my husband was very impressed and thinks we are best friends, lol.
ReplyDeleteThat book sounds very interesting. I've not written to authors or celebrities, but maybe I should start!
ReplyDeleteI haven't written to other authors. But what a good idea!! My students wrote to different authors, and it was exciting if one answered. Beverly Cleary was always one of those people. We also wrote to Pres, Clinton after reading "What Pres. Washington ate for breakfast". We received an letter which told about Clinton's life in the white house.
ReplyDeleteI have never written to an author. That is an interesting idea! :)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good book. I've never written to an author. I remember when I was growing up I would frequently write letters to my grandmother and she would write me back. It's a lost art and one that would be so nice to have back
ReplyDeleteI haven't written to an author but when I was a kid I wrote to Hayley Mills and she sent me an autographed photo. I do want to write to Henry Louis Gates, but I've put it off. I really need to do that.
ReplyDeleteFun hearing back from an author like that!
ReplyDeleteI can't recall ever having written a pen-and-paper letter to an author. (I have commented on blogs or FB pages of a few, but that's not quite the same thing, is it...)
ReplyDeleteI read A Severe Mercy way back in the past, and still have the paperback - but it was a long time ago and I have read several other books about the life of C.S. Lewis over the years as well, so couldn't say now what stood out to me in that one compared to others.
I have never written to authors because they have never written to me. Authors like Shakespeare are over-rated. There is not one car chase in any of his plays.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I've heard a lot of people taking about The Correspondent and I love good memoirs so I'll have to check out those out. I've never written to any authors or celebrities. It's nice that you do. Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you have a beautiful Sunday. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Terra! I have never written to an author.
ReplyDeleteI have written a letter once to a famous author. I was very surprised that he answered it.
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