Dear Readers

29 June 2015

Fort Worth, TX

Dear Readers,

I hope this letter finds you well. I write more for cathartic means than for any other purpose, and it is my hope that through your reading (and possibly through your writing) you too may find catharsis.

While working as a graduate intern at TCU Press, I was reawakened to a fault in modern correspondence: we have lost letters. Well, we haven’t lost them exactly . . . we no longer write them. (Note: an extended text message does not count as a letter.)

Kassia Waggoner and Adam Nemmers, two doctoral students at Texas Christian University, stumbled upon a collection of Civil War letters in the Mary Couts Burnett Library. The Love family composed these letters that not only grant insight into the lives of soldiers but also reveal intimate details of family life during the Civil War. As Waggoner and Nemmers explain in their book, Yours in Filial Regard: The Civil War Letters of a Texas Family, the Love brothers fighting in the war—Cyrus, Sam, James, John, and Robert—wrote most of the letters, revealing the importance of written correspondence to their psychological health.

After reading Yours in Filial Regards, I believe the Love brothers teach us four main sources of motivation for writing letters:

Calculated Thought

Words penned down are not hurriedly typed and then sent into a digital world. They are thought out, measured, decided upon, and then written. Those whom you love deserve your letters because they deserve your thoughts—your unhurried thoughts.

Absolute Love and Care

If composing a letter requires that you carefully think about the person to whom you are writing, then the act of letter writing proves how much you care about them. Your words testify that you have set aside all other aspects of your daily life to chronicle your deepest sympathies regarding this person.

Commitment

You don’t write a letter to someone in whom you have not invested a significant amount of time and energy—plain and simple. (Even if you write a negative letter, you are still investing a significant amount of energy to pen down your negative emotions.)

Worry

This point may seem strange, but if you read through Waggoner and Nemmer’s collection, I’m certain you will find it more than appropriate. Throughout their letters, the Love brothers express concern for their family’s welfare. But underlying worry seems to permeate the letters—the brothers wonder why they have not received letters back from their family, no doubt questioning how much they are missed by their loved ones.

When we are away from those we love, it’s natural to worry whether they think of us as often as we think of them. Cyrus Love, the eldest Love brother, is no exception, so he writes letters to his family. But then one day, August 20, 1863, he writes his last letter. I doubt he knew that it would be his last, but his words ring ironically into the present day:

My life has again been protected by Providence. . . It has been the Will of the Deity that I should not be killed so far and I hope He will protect my life through the war so that I may be able to return to you. . . The sum of my wishes for some time past is that I may live to get back to you. . . (Letter 74)

Cyrus died in battle on October 7, 1863. He never returned to his family. His last penned words read:

Tell Tenny. Alice. Mary. Lizzy. And John K to be good children and study hard.

Yours in filial regard &c

      C.W. Love

Cyrus may have worried whether his family was thinking about him or whether they knew how much he cared for them. But history has proved that Cyrus need not have worried—his love and care lives on today through his letter.

Letters. They need not go by the wayside. They, perhaps more than any other medium, show how much we love and care for those around us. Cyrus’ final words cause me to wonder: if I had one last letter to write, to whom would I write it and what would it say?

I propose that you ask yourself the same questions and respond below. I realize that I am praising hand-written correspondence through a digital medium, and maybe that’s how you should “write” your letter if you so wish. But I’m going to start this challenge off with a handwritten letter and post the image below. Feel free to do the same.

I, like Cyrus Love, would send my last letter to my parents. Who would you send yours to? What would your letter say?

Happy writing,

Megan

Megan Poole is a graduate student and teaching assistant in the TCU Department of English.

The Written Art

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a book is “a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover.” It’s a simple definition for such an extraordinary object. Some people will see a book and cringe, unable to see more than just a stack of papers bound together. What is the point of a book? Why, as a Writing major, am I planning on dedicating my life to books, especially since they are “going out of style” and won’t be as important as technology advances? Those are questions I am asked almost weekly. Generally they are accompanied by a look of incredulity or a roll of the eyes. A book is so much more than papers tied together. A book is an eye-opening adventure; a book is source of inspiration; a book is a type of legacy; a book is a work of art.

Some books are obviously adventures, others not so much. For my internship at TCU Press, I am reading the architect Frank D. Welch’s memoir, a book I was hesitant about. I read fiction. I live for fiction. What was I going to do with an entire book about architecture? But did I read the memoir, and I was amazed by how intriguing it was. It took me on an adventure and opened my eyes to the thoughts of an architect. I learned new things (like, for instance, what a gabled roof is) and now find myself looking at buildings and wondering about the life of the person who created them. I was bemused about my reaction to the memoir and found myself wishing that it was longer so that I could learn more. It was an adventure because this was something completely new to me, and I was able to learn something from it, and that’s what adventures are about: learning things.

Books are unique concepts. They are the tiny thoughts of someone put together to create larger thoughts, to tell a story and to teach. They have a strange ability to inspire people to do things.

Because of the impact books have made on my life, when someone tells me that books aren’t going to be around much longer, I generally stifle a laugh. I understand that there are now eBooks and that sort of thing, but honestly they don’t hold a candle to the actual, physical copy of a book. Although some books do get lost from the hands of time, many do not. We still have writings like The Odyssey and The Iliad. Decades, if not centuries, from now, people will still know the names Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins.

Each book is a piece of art. It might not be one in the same fashion as a painting or a sculpture or even a symphony, but it is art and it is, in its own sense, everlasting and inspiring. Each book, each sheet of paper, is important in ways beyond just being held together. Books, no matter their genre, are the masterpieces of the Written Art.

by Shelby Hild, intern