Selected English Letters

Excerpt from Selected English Letters

Since the letter is the one form of writing which everybody finds it necessary at one time or another to use, it shows perhaps a wider range and a greater diversity than any other literary type. As an aid to business or as a convenience in polite society, it is, of coarse, indispensable and universal in our modern life, although when employed for these purposes it is bound by roles so fixed that individuality has seldom chance for play; on the other hand, as a means of friendly communication, a substitute for familiar talk, it is governed by few, if any, restrictions, and may thus, in style as well as in substance, become a free expression of the moods and personality of its author. In the first case, however great may be its immediate and practical usefulness, it is, as art, usually undistinguished and ephemeral; in the second, it has boundless possibilities, and may, when handled by a master, become autobiographical writing of high excellence. So many letters being of the transitory character represented by this former class, any discussion of the letter as literature must begin by eliminating the large proportion of everyday correspondence which has no permanent value.

A further limitation arises from the fact that because the most spontaneous and genuine letters are ordinarily composed without any thought of publication, only an insignificant number, probably, are preserved. Unless there is some definite reason for keeping them for future reference, or unless the recipient has a ready sense of literary appreciation, many valuable letters inevitably disappear. Even if not actually destroyed, it has been, until recent years, only in exceptional instances that they have found their way to publication.

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