To the Letter
Page 39
Mews, Constant J. 79–80, 80n
Michaelis, David 333
middle class 97, 111, 253
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare) 141
military mail 40, 389n, 432
Miller, Henry 348–54
Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the hand and seal of William Shakespeare 140
Miss Leslie’s Behavior Book (Leslie) 275
Mitford, Jessica 433, 433n
Moby-Dick (Melville) 256
Molière 148
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de 107–8
Moody, Rick 427
Moore, Elizabeth (aka Bessie)
letters to Chris 323–8, 355–6, 357–9, 387–8, 414–15
personal history 68, 117n, 323, 389n, 416, 424–5
Moortown (Hughes) 361
Mrs Dalloway (Woolf) 296, 297, 303
Mrs Warren’s Profession (Shaw) 263
Muir, John 46, 49
Mullan, John 213–15, 216, 219, 220
Mulready, William 225
Murphy, Terence ‘Poodle’ 262
Myers, Lucas 367
Nabokov, Dmitri 300, 302
Nabokov, Vera 300
Nabokov, Vladimir 301
Napoleon Bonaparte 176–83, 184, 190, 190n, 192, 239
Napoleonic Wars 222
Nelson, Horatio 190, 192
Nero 57
netiquette 398–9
New York Public Library 299, 300, 395
New York Times 183, 254, 263
New Yorker 284, 369
Newcastle, Prime Minister Thomas Pelham Duke of 164
Newcastle University 34
newspapers, mailing 223, 240
Nicholson, Nigel 293n, 296n
Night Mail (Auden) 398
Nin, Anaïs 348, 350–4
nineteenth century 220, 260, 271, 273, 278, 281, 394
Nixon, President Richard 433
Nokes, David 212
Observer 369, 384
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ (Keats) 338
Ohio and Mississippi Mail Line 240
Ohlin, Alix 428
Oldfield, Sybil 316n
Oldwanton, Olyver 105n
On the Proper Time to Slip the Cable (Seneca) 56
On the Road (Kerouac) 306–7, 310–11
‘On-Line Man-Computer Communication’ (Licklider) 393
Ongpin, Stephen 434
Orlando (Woolf) 293n, 296
Osgood, Samuel 237–40, 239n
Oxyrhynchus 45
Page, William 346
palimpsest 72
Pamela (Richardson) 216
paper 112, 209, 274
papyrus 43, 45, 46, 49
Parade’s End (Ford) 189
Paris Review 305, 311, 364
Pascal, Blaise 89
Paston family 120–3, 127
Paston, John (I) 121
Paston, John (II) 121
Paston, John (III) 121, 123
Paston, Margaret 121–4
Paul, St 74
Paul of Yugoslavia, Prince 441
Peabody, Sophia 241, 241n
Peanuts (Schulz) 330–1, 333–5
Peloponnesian War 45
Penguin guide to netiquette 398
Penn & Teller 24
Penny Black 225, 226, 241, 263
penny post (1680) 134, 135, 136
penny postage (1840), universal 135, 224–5, 224n, 271, 279n
pens 46, 141n
Peter of Blois 100
Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) 51, 84–90, 101, 336
Phocion 45
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) 25
Piddington family 26, 26n
Pieter (brother of Erasmus) 102
pillar boxes 228, 230–1, 439
Plath, Aurelia 375–7, 377n, 378, 379
Plath, Sylvia 195–6, 367–9, 371–4, 376–9, 382–3, 429
suicide 374–5, 376, 380, 384n
Plato 49
Pliny the Elder 60–2, 65
Pliny the Younger 57–65, 71–2, 81, 111, 408
Pompey 53
Pompey theatre 52, 54
Pond, John 237n
Pond, William 237n
Pope, Alexander 82, 214
Post Office 218–31 passim, 264–6, 273, 389n, 424–5, 435
United States (US) 240, 243, 262, 395
Post Office Guide 263
postal service 127, 222–5
novels 220n
postal carriers 40, 120–3, 125–7, 129, 136n, 141
reliability 91, 121, 152n, 158, 222, 435
stationery 225
United States (US) reforms 236–44, 254–63, 437
postcards 282, 334
A Poste with a Packet of Madde Letters (Breton) 108
Postman Pat (television) 438
‘post-stage’ landmarks 40, 125–6
Potter, Beatrix 434
Pound, Ezra 188–9
powder of ‘pounce’ 141n
Prairie Schooner (journal) 273
Prentice, Isobel 314–15
A President for Young Pen-Men, the Letter-Writer 109
Presley, Elvis 433
Prester John 79n
Pride and Prejudice (Austen) 210, 216, 229
printing press 104
privacy 48, 72, 90–1, 113, 139, 260
The Prompters Packet of Letters (1633) 120
Protestant Reformation 101
Proust, Marcel 192
Pryor, Felix 195–8
public ‘open’ letters 48
Punch 274
Putnam’s Magazine 256
Rabutin-Chantal, Marie de (Madame de Sévigné) 148–56, 152n, 162, 186, 197, 271, 295n
Racine 148, 154
Radice, Betty 49
‘Radium Girl’ (illusion) 15–18, 24, 26–7, 29, 30
Raphael 196
Rationes Dictandi (Hugh of Bologna) 100
Rectina 60–1
Reid, Christopher 363–4, 365–6, 369–70, 381–3
Renaissance 51, 57, 85, 91, 101, 135
Richardson, Samuel 158, 215–17, 217n, 274, 275
Richmond, Bruce 290
Rimbaud, Arthur 311
Robertson, Jean 105n
Robinson, William E. 14–15
Roman Catholic Church 79n, 135
Romans 31–43, 45
Cicero 50–4
vs Greeks 48–9
love letters 71–4
Pliny the Younger 57–65
Seneca the Younger 54–7
Roosevelt, Elizabeth 441
Roosevelt, President F.D. 198n
Ross, Robbie 21n
Roth, Philip 305
Rotunno, Laura 274n
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 341n
Rowling, J.K. 433, 433n
Royal Magazine 264
Royal Mail 133–4, 142, 437, 438, 439n
Rubenstein Library (Duke University) 405
‘The Rumpus’ culture website 427
Rushdie, Salman 407
Ruskin, John 346
Sackville-West, Vita 293–4, 296–7, 302, 304, 313, 317–18
Saintsbury, George 271
Salisse, John 28, 29
Sanger, Abner 236, 255
Saturnalia 39
‘Sawing Through A Woman’ (illusion) 15, 30
Schnellock, Emil 354n
Schram, Albin 176, 184–5
Schulz, Charles 331, 333–5
Schwalbe, Will 399
Scott, Captain 197
Scott, Grant F. 340n
scribes 42, 49, 86, 98, 104, 108
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook (McLaughlin) 336
Le Secretaire à la Mode (de la Serre) 110–11
security 48, 72, 90–1, 113, 139, 260
Sedgwick, Edie 272n
Sedgwick, Henry Dwight 272
Selbit, P.T. 30
Send: the How, Why, When and When Not of Email (2007) 398
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (Seneca the Younger) 54–7, 55n, 82, 98, 102
suicide 56–7
Sense and Sensibility (Austen) 209, 216
Septicius Clarus 59
seventeenth century 135, 148, 271
Sévigné, Charles de 154
Sévigné, Madame de 148–56, 152n, 162, 186, 197, 271, 295n
Sévigné, Marquis de 149
Seymour, Edward 112
Shakespeare, William 107, 140–3, 200, 336
Shamela (Fielding) 217
Shaw, George Bernard 263
Shawcross, William 440
Shipley, David 399
Shirley (Brontë) 187
sixteenth century 165, 330, 394
Skipworth, Lucy 242
Smith College 195
Smith, Elder (publishers) 187
Smyth, Ethel 295, 295n, 318
Smythson (stationers) 23–4
Society for the Suppression of Vice 262
Socrates 49
Solemnis 42
Solomon, Daisy 266
Some Arguments in Favour of the Simple Life (Seneca) 56
The Sopranos (television) 84
Sotheby’s 176, 183, 195, 333, 334
Spartans 45
Spectator 187
stage patter 27, 29
staging posts 435
stalker letters 428
stamps 224–6, 231, 282, 435
cases 275–7
collections 226–8
tilting 282–3, 283n
United States (US) 241
Stanford Research Institute (SRI) 390, 392
Stanhope, John 165
Stanhope, Lady Mary 157
Stanhope, Philip 164–6, 168, 169–71
Stern, Gerd 311, 311n
Steven, James 194
Steven, James Lindsay 192–4
Stewart, Alan 141
Stoic tradition 56
The Story of Our Post Office (Cushing) 259
Strathmore, Lord 440–1
Studies in Conservation (journal) 34
Suche (letter carrier) 129
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway) 189
Sunday Telegraph 433n
Sunday Times 315
Sussman, Peter Y. 433n
SVBEEQV code 46
Swift, Jonathan 214
tablets, writing 33–6, 38–41, 44, 79, 123, 282
Tacitus 59, 60, 62
The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare) 141
‘Tank in the Thames’ (illusion) 13
Tascius 60
Taxis dynasty (postal service) 135
Taylor, John 136n
telegraph service 241n
The Tempest (Shakespeare) 141
templates 46, 48, 159, 217, 274, 283
behavioural 157–8, 162, 165, 166–7
expansion 95, 98–100, 103
Ten Years Among the Mail Bags (Holbrook) 243
Theodoret of Cyrus 82
theological letters 81–2
Theophrastus 46
thirteenth century 248, 306
Thomas, Congressman 239
Thomas, Dylan 187–8, 190
Thomas, J.D. 36
Thomas, Kate 228
Thomas, Nancy 187
Thoreau, Henry 244–6, 309
Thrale, Mrs 215
Thurloe, John 134, 136–7
Thwaite, Anthony 370
The Times 225, 227, 316n
Times Literary Supplement 371
Tingey, John 264n, 266
Tiro 51
Tite Street (Chelsea) 20–1
To the Lighthouse (Woolf) 296, 303
Tolkien, J.R.R. 187, 190
Tomlinson, R@y 393–5, 393n
‘Top Tablets’ selection (Birley Vindolanda letters) 38
Tracey (postwoman) 435
Trafalgar, Battle of 192
Trajan, Emperor 57
translation 43n
travel writing 87–9
Treasury competition 225
‘Triple Box Escape’ (illusion) 13
Trollope, Anthony 228–30
Tropic of Capricorn (Miller) 348
Tuerk, Andreas 396–7
Tuke, Brian 133–4
Tullia Ciceronis 51
tutors 72–4, 75–6, 99, 220
twelfth century 57, 74, 80, 100
Twelfth Night 140
twentieth century 282, 305, 403-4
Two Pence Blue 226
Under Milk Wood (Thomas) 188
Unferth, Ben 431
Unferth, Deb Olin 428, 429–32, 433–4
universal penny postage (1840) 135, 224–5, 224n, 271, 279n
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) 390, 392–3
University of Illinois 300
University of Jerusalem 198
University of Sussex 313, 425
University of Texas 299, 301, 306, 403–4
Valentine’s Day 345n
cards 123, 330–3, 402
Vanity Fair (journal) 303
Vatican Library 72, 131
Venning, Thomas 185
Vepria, Johannes de 79
Vesuvius, Mount 59, 60–5
Victoria, Queen 225, 440
Victoria, Princess 440
Victorian age 21, 149, 207, 271, 273–4, 336
Vindolanda tablets 123, 282
Chrauttius 42
Claudia Severa 41–2
Clodius Super 40–1
Flavius Cerialis 40–2
Octavius 38, 38n
Paris 42, 42n
Solemnis 42, 42n
Sulpicia Lepidina 41–2
Veldeius 42
Virilis 42–3
Visions of Coady (Kerouac) 307
Voltaire 148
Vonetta, The Mistress of Mystery (magician) 14
Vortigern and Rowena 140, 141n
The Voyage Out (Woolf) 291
Walden (Thoreau) 244, 246
Walker, Ethel 17
Walker, Kevin 17
Walker, Valentine A. 13–18, 24, 26, 28–30
‘Walking Through a Wall’ (Walker) 15
Wallace, David Foster 306, 402
Wallace, Robert 224
Wallis, P.H. 316
Walpole, Sir Robert 197
Warhol, Andy 272n
Wars of the Roses 121
Washington, Bushrod 190n
Washington, President George 190n, 239n
Waterlow, Sydney 291
Waugh, Auberon 195
The Waves (Woolf) 296
Webster, John 198
Wecker, Johann 138
Wells, Richard Alfred 274
Western Union Telegraph Company 348–9
Wevill, Assia 380
Weymouth magic convention (1968) 17, 30
W.H. Smith children’s writing prize 364
Whang Shih 283
What Matters in Jane Austen? (Mullan) 213
White, Ed 306–8
White, Rowland 126
Wholey, Edna 365–6
Wilde, Oscar 20–2, 21n, 25
Wildman, Major John 136–7
Williams, William Smith 187
Wingate, Benjamin 242
Wingate, Mary 242
Winslet, Kate 84
Wired (magazine) 395
Witherings, Thomas 136n
Wodehouse, P.G. 441
Wolf, Leopold 432
Wolfe, Thomas 311
Wolfe, Tom 299
Wolsey, Cardinal 131, 133
women
authors 185–6
Greek educated 47
guides/manuals 157–62
handwriting 42
‘The Wonderland Case For Postage Stamps’ 275–7
Wood Green Empire 15
Woodall, Christopher 101n
Woolf, Leonard 291, 293–7, 302, 304, 313–14, 317–18
Woolf, Virginia Adeline (née Stephen) 51, 156, 290–3, 295–6, 298, 304, 308, 383, 406
suicide 293–6, 293n, 298, 304, 312–13, 315–16
Word (program) 405
World’s Fair (newspaper) 25
Wren, Mrs (Wilde and) 22
Wright, R.P. 36
‘write as one speaks’ doctrine 97n, 209, 281
Yale Review 271
The Years (Woolf) 296
Zola 263
Zomah, Madame 26
* The translations of his autobiography and the subsequent letters are by Betty Radice, Penguin Classics, 1974.
* There has been some academic discussion that the unnamed correspondent to whom Abelard sends his confession was a creation of Abelard’s making, a device to focus his attention and garner some sympathy. There is also a theory that suggests that all the correspondence between the lovers was consciously manufactured between the two, or even later invented by another writer, but the authenticity of the early letters at least is generally accepted.
* Forged letters were not unknown at this time, the most famous being a letter purportedly from Prester John in 1165 in which he positioned himself as a mythical king and detailed fantastical creatures in Central Asia. But the motivation behind the possibly fake letters of Abelard and Heloise remains unclear, beyond mere titillation or a desire to re-expose hypocrisy and scandal within the Church.
* Mews and his colleague Neville Chiavaroli uphold Ewald Koensgen’s tradition of crediting the correspondents merely with male/female monikers rather than definite names.
* He wrote, for example, of how he ruled ‘the field of eloquence with exalted genius and a solemn style’.
* The letters of Aristotle that Demetrius refers to have not survived. The advice that one should ‘write as one speaks’ has become a classic doctrine, and was favoured by Jane Austen amongst innumerable others. We’ll return to it in later chapters.
* As quoted in Alain Boureau, ‘The Letter-Writing Norm, a Medieval Invention’ in Correspondence: Models of Letter-Writing from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century by Roger Chartier, Alain Boureau and Cecile Dauphin, translated by Christopher Woodall, Polity Press, 1997.