How to Write Letters: A Manual of Correspondence, Showing the Correct Structure, Composition, Punctuation, Formalities, and Uses of the Various Kinds of Letters, Notes, and Cards

by J. Willis Westlake

Nearly all the writing of most persons is in the form of letters; and yet in many of our schools this kind of composition is almost entirely neglected. This neglect is probably due in some measure to the face that heretofore there has been no complete and systematic treatise on the subject of letter-writing. When it is considered, that in the art of correspondence there is much that is conventional, requiring a knowledge of social customs, which, if not early taught, is obtained only after many years of observation and experience; and that the possession or want of this knowledge does much to determine a person's standing in cultured society, -- the value of this art, and of a thorough text-book by which it may be taught, will be duly appreciated. For many years the author, in common with many other teachers, has felt the need of such a work, in the instruction of his own classes, and it is to this want that the present treatise owes its origin.

In plan the work is broad and comprehensive, embracing as it does the whole field of letters -- their classification, structure, rhetoric, and literature -- as well as the forms and uses of the various kinds of notes and cards. It is designed, both in matter and in method, to meet the wants, not only of schools of various grades, but also of private learners and of society at large.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

1830-1912

Reviews

[Jiwon Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite part of the book is on page 41:

"When the address consists of the name alone, many persons place a colon after it, thus : —
Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson: My dear Sir, — etc.
There it very respectable authority for this punctuation."

Also, this is priceless: "A neat and well-worded letter of one page once a month is better than a slovenly scrawl of four pages once a week. In fact, bad letters are like store bills: the fewer and the shorter they are, the better pleased is the recipient."

Like someone must have pissed him off enough to write a full book on how to write a letter XD

"Many letters go wrong because the name of the postoffice is not correctly written. For example, it happens that there is a Millersville in Lancaster county, Pa., a Millershurg in Dauphin county, and a Millerstown in Perry county ; and as these names are nearly alike and mean the same, one is often written for the other. If the county is given, the letters reach their destination ; if not, they go to the Dead Letter Office."

"We learn words as we do faces - by their looks. Those that are frequently met with in reading and writing become, as it were, photographed upon the memory."

"Words are like leaves and where they most abound much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found"

"If, when writing a letters, we would keep before our minds the question, "How will this look a year or ten years hence?" we would save ourselves from writing a great many foolish things."

"The best domestic letters are dictated by the heart rather than the head. A loving heart naturally imparts a glow to the written page, and this warmth is communicated by the mysterious power of words, to the heart of the reader."

"As a general rule, women are better letter-writers than men; partly, perhaps, because as a class they have more leisure, but mainly because they have more tact than men, and at the same time more vivacity and fluency."

"In our rambles in the field of letters we have picked up a handful of ripe ears, filled with golden grains of truth."

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this while doing research for a historical piece I was working on. While it didn't have what I was actually looking for, it was a nice glimpse back in time. I learned some interesting things that might prove useful for other future projects.

[Natali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the original copy of this book as reference for an upcoming podcast and found it rather delightful. Initially I had planned on skimming it but found myself reading it all the way through. It’s a fun historical glimpse into Victorian writing.

[Nathan]

First heard of this book on Brain Pickings . (Even with the Brain Pickings piece I might not have pulled this from the library except that earlier this year I read What Lot's Wife Saw, a book very concerned with letters, and letters as literature, a book large portions of which are epistolary -- a book which lost me largely because the purportedly epistolary bits didn't read like letters -- but which got me thinking about letters.) This text, published in Philadelphia in 1876, is a charming little thing, even if often outmoded or obsolete. Not the sort of book you'll probably read cover to cover but definitely worth flipping through for some insights into a largely lost form (and some nice examples along the way). A book I've enjoyed more for the novelty than for its utility but which I'm glad I checked out.