The Letter Exchange - Links Related to Issue 23

	THE LETTER EXCHANGE
	Connecting Penfriends Since 1982

Links related to Issue 23, Autumn 2010

The Letter Exchange, Autumn 2010

First, I suppose, come letters; then adventure.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

Those evil postcards
	Not surprisingly, there are many web sites with links to the "saucy seaside postcards" lamented in the New York Times article on page 7. Seen from the viewpoint of the 21st century they're mostly pretty tame compared to what's out in Internet land now, although the cards became more explicit as the decades went on despite periodic attempts to ban them. There were other articles from that time period complaining about the "evil"; here's one from the New York Times from 1913. Today the cards and the artists who create them are being re-evaluated, displayed in museums, and even re-issued.
Write here
	Wondering what the Missive Maven's desk mentioned in Writing between the Lines (page 8) looks like? Here's a handy link.
The ancient world of letters
	Pliny (The World of Letters, page 20) didn't just complain that no one wrote to him; his letters are filled with Roman political history as well as extremely detailed descriptions of his villa. Collections of his letters are available at Powell's, Gutenberg, and Google Books. Melmoth's translation is also available, in case you're wondering about the alleged inadequacies that Hutchinson refers to. For an irreverent opinion of Pliny and his letters, including a much looser modern translation of one of the letters in LEX that includes a different interpretation of why the gods were invoked, see the blog Steve Reads.
LEX on the radio
	Here's a link to the Indiana Public Radio article on "Keeping Alive the Lost Art of Letter-Writing" mentioned in "From the Editor" (page 29). You can also listen to the broadcast by clicking here.
	Clicking on most of the books on this page will take you to Powell's, the world's largest independent bookstore. You can also use the search engine to the left. Any purchase you make by following one of these links will help support LEX – not just these items but any book or DVD in their inventory.
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