A Treasury of The World's Great Letters

by M. Lincoln Schuster

Letters make the most interesting reading in the world---especially other people's.

In this classic anthology, the product of many years of intensive collecting and research by M. Lincoln Schuster, are assembled the most interesting letters of all time---the crucial and characteristic private communications of the foremost people of world history---ranging from Alexander the Great and Saint Paul the Apostle, to Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte.

These intimate letters are selected, edited and integrated to shed light---as only private and secret letters can---on the great figures, the great events and the great ideas of history.

Each letter is prefaced by a biographical prelude giving the significant and dramatic facts about the person who wrote it and the person to whom it was addressed, and summarizing the historical background and impelling motive of the correspondence; results or consequences of the correspondence, and in many cases by the full text of the reply that is provoked.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Classics, Anthologies

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

M. Lincoln "Max" Schuster co-founded the Simon & Schuster publishing house with Richard L. Simon—father of singer-songwriter Carly Simon—in 1924. He built a reputation as "one of trade publishing's most creative and unconventional editors" during his 42 year career there.

Reviews

[°•.Melina°•. · Rating 5 out of 5]

《شور انگیز ترین عشق‌نامه‌های جهان: از ناپلئون تا بتهوون》
نشر کتاب پارسه/ ۱۹۲ صفحه(گلچین)

خیلی جذاب بود. شگفت‌انگیزه جوریکه دستنوشته‌های آدمهای بزرگ از ۹۰۰ سال پیش تا همین ۲۰۰ سال پیش تو این کتاب جمع شده؛ چطور انسانها انگار همشون "یک‌جور اما به صد‌جور" اول و آخر عشق رو تجربه میکنه، رنج میکشن، از دست میدن و به هر حال جاودان میمونن. میتونم تا ابد به خوندن ژانر" نامه‌ها" ادامه بدم خیلی میراث جذاب و مهمیه. خدا میدونه از ما چی میمونهدچون مسلما گوشی‌ها تا ابد نمیتونن در دسترس بمونن.

🔖اردیبهشت ۱۴۰۴

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read this year. Every person who has a love for history should read it.

[Clausell Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far my favorite book! What strikes me most is how letters from these eras, no matter the period, represent compact, carefully crafted communications sent with only the hope of reaching their destination, and the even rarer hope of receiving a reply. Whether intentionally written for posterity or truly private moments, these letters reveal wit, humor, vulnerability, ambition, and motivation as their authors took the time to convey their full feelings or objectives, tailoring their messages to their specific audience. These letters are truly windows into their souls and into the past, written before the age of text messages, phone calls, and emails compressed time, distance, and genuineness. This book does an excellent job of giving us the context and background to understand these figures even more deeply.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

The World’s Great Letters is an anthology, a collection of letters meant to show other sides to famous people. The book was first published in 1940, so it is a bit dated, but I didn’t read this expecting to find famous emails or anything like that.

The book is organized chronologically, starting out with letters that have somehow survived millennia, and going on to more recent letters. In this book, we find letters from Alexander the Great and Darius III, letters from Abraham Lincoln, letters to and from Baruch Spinoza, and so on. The table of contents also has an organization of the letters by subject, which makes the book really good if you don’t feel like going and reading it cover-to-cover.

The book contains a framework for each letter that gives biographical and historical information. So for the letters between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia, it explains who each of them was and why they were writing to each other. Now if you play Civilization or other games, these names might be familiar to you, but not everyone plays turn-based strategy games. The same goes for Baruch Spinoza’s letters; a former pupil wrote to Spinoza after he converted to Roman Catholicism.

So this book was very well done considering what it is. It is not difficult to realize the gist of it.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Loved it!! My Favorite Letters Were from Alexander the Great to Darius talking about how he has Dominion over the world. It was an Amazing Read