Letter (message)

A letter is a written message conveyed from one person to another through a medium. Something epistolary means that it is a form of letter writing. The term usually excludes written material intended to be read in its original form by large numbers of people, such as newspapers and placards, although even these may include material in the form of an "open letter". The typical form of a letter for many centuries, and the archetypal concept even today, is a sheet of paper that is sent to a correspondent through a postal system. A letter can be formal or informal, depending on its audience and purpose. Besides being a means of communication and a store of information, letter writing has played a role in the reproduction of writing as an art throughout history. Letters have been sent since antiquity and are mentioned in the Iliad. Historians Herodotus and Thucydides mention and use letters in their writings.

History of letter writing

Historically, letters have existed from ancient India, ancient Egypt and Sumer, through Rome, Greece and China, up to the present day. During the 17th and 18th centuries, letters were used to self-educate. The main purposes of letters were to send information, news and greetings. For some, letters were a way to practice critical reading, self-expressive writing, polemical writing and also exchange ideas with like-minded others. For some people, letters were seen as a written performance. Letters make up several of the books of the Bible. Archives of correspondence, whether for personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as primary sources for historians. At certain times, the writing of letters was thought to be an art form and a genre of literature, for instance in Byzantine epistolography.
In the ancient world letters might be written on various different materials, including metal, lead, wax-coated wooden tablets, pottery fragments, animal skin, and papyrus. From Ovid, we learn that Acontius used an apple for his letter to Cydippe. More recently, letters have mainly been written on paper: handwritten and more recently typed.
There is a wealth of letters and instructional materials on letter writing throughout history. The study of letter writing usually involves both the study of rhetoric and grammar.
Historians of the medieval period often study family letter collections, which gather the personal and business correspondence of a group of related people and shed light on their daily life. The Paston Letters are widely studied for insight into life in Britain during the Wars of the Roses. Other major medieval family letter collections include the Stonor Letters, Plumpton letters, and Cely Letters.
In the United States, letters experienced a boost in popularity after the Postal Act of 1845 decreased the price of sending letters and when paper started being made with wood pulp.
Letters were a chief form of communication, in both personal and business communications, for many centuries before telegraphy, telephony, and Internet communications reduced their primacy. Even in times and places where literacy was lower, illiterate people could pay literate ones to write letters to, and to read letters from, distant correspondents. Even in the era of telegrams and telephones, letters remained quite important until fax and email further eroded their primacy, especially since the turn of the 21st century. As communication technology has developed in recent history, posted letters on paper have become less important as a routine form of communication. For example, the development of the telegraph drastically shortened the time taken to send a communication, by sending it between distant points as an electrical signal. At the telegraph office closest to the destination, the signal was converted back into writing on paper and delivered to the recipient. The next step was the telex which avoided the need for local delivery. Then followed the fax machine: a letter could be transferred from the sender to the receiver through the telephone network as an image. These technologies did not displace physical letters as the primary route for communication; however today, the Internet, by means of email, plays the main role in written communications, together with text messages; however, these email communications are not generally referred to as letters but rather as e-mail messages, messages or simply emails or e-mails, with the term "letter" generally being reserved for communications on paper.
On March 6, 2025, PostNord announced that all letter mail deliveries will cease in Denmark by the end of 2025, citing a 90% decline in letter mail since 2000.

Letters as historical source material

Due to the timelessness and universality of letter writing, extant letters from earlier eras constitute an important category of source material in historiography.
Letters were often subject to state censorship and confiscation. Private letters preserved in state archives tell not only what the author intended but also how the letter's purported content was interpreted by state officials. In some cases, the confiscation of letters led to increased censorship, like bans on correspondence and migration.

Importance of letters in the 18th century

During the 18th century, called the "Great Age of Letter Writing", the epistolary novel became a hugely popular genre and came from the format of letters. The novel also debuted in the 17th century with Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister. Letter writers used this to communicate and explore their identity and daily life at the time. As a medium of writing that lies ambiguously between the public and private worlds, letters provide an appealing peek into other people's thoughts, feelings, and lives. During this historical period, publishing these "private" letters so they could build and preserve literary prominence became common for the first time. Just as social media streams now allow modern celebrities to present versions of their intimate lives for the public to see and read all about, so did early modern and 18th-century figures carefully build themselves in their letters for audiences to be excited to read these works of literature. In the 18th century, readers frequently associated personal letters with the ideals of honesty and truth. Writing in the 18th-century was a rough process that required a lot of materials, many of which were difficult or expensive to get. Researchers interested in the links and connections between migrants, settlers, and refugees have increasingly concentrated on letters and their purposes. Surprisingly, academics only began examining letters as artifacts in the late twentieth century; most studies continue to focus on the national course of epistolary novels.
Letters also offer information on changing conceptions of privacy, secrecy, and trust during a period of widespread censorship, especially in war. Lastly, study on letter writing and mail services culture exposes the economic and technical roots of letter writing, as well as how links required resources ranging from writing tables and ink to postal employees and ships to carry letters over the world. A lot of letters that were written in this time also showed up in a popular magazine called The Gentleman's Magazine. People were also charged for postage during this time. They either had to pay before or during transit. Writers took great caution in their number of pages so they did not have to pay so much. These writers were considered very clever in their way to avoid the overcharge. Letter writing also became a really important pastime for some. Women were among these people to write letters and express themselves. A lot of female friendships were formed from women being encouraged to write letters. In fact, the most popular character who wrote in this period was named Clarissa Harlowe. This was also a chance for women to express their intelligence. They used letters also to separate themselves from their husbands and have their own voice to enter more into society. Even when the epistolary novel lost its popularity, people did not stop writing letters. It gave everyone a voice when they did not think they had one and it is incredibly important to people to have that, especially the women of this time.
Alexander Pope was the first English writer to publish from his own letters during his lifetime, putting out a new example for authors and other important people's epistolary works. Pope recognized that writings may reflect both personal religious devotion and cleverness. Pope's works are lacking in formality and informality. He had written his letters all about his life and what he did. Pope also wrote about his friends and the health and work of them. "All the pleasure of using familiar letters is to give us the assurance of a friend's welfare," Pope said. He had also taken to describing himself as "a mortal enemy and despiser of what they call fine letters." There was a letter addressed to Pope's father that ended up being used as writing paper for the Iliad. When Alexander Pope's letters were published, they were widely read by a number of people.

Comparison with electronic mail

Despite email's widespread use, letters are still popular, particularly in business and for official communications. At the same time, many "letters" are sent in electronic form. The following advantages of paper letters over e-mails and text messages are put forward:

No special device is needed to receive a letter, just a postal address, and the letter can be read immediately on receipt.
An e-mail may sit in a recipient's inbox for some time before being read, or may not be read at all; a paper letter is more likely to receive prompt attention once it arrives.
An advertising mailing can reach every address in a particular area.
A letter provides an immediate, and in principle permanent, physical record of communication, without the need for printing. Letters, especially those with a signature and/or on an organization's own notepaper, are more difficult to falsify than is an email, and thus provide much better evidence of the contents of the communication.
A letter in the sender's own handwriting is more personal than an e-mail and shows that the sender has taken the effort to write it.
If required, small physical objects can be enclosed in the envelope with the letter.
Letters are unable to transmit malware or other harmful files that can be transmitted by e-mail.
E-mails are insecure and may be intercepted en route. For this reason, letters are often preferred for confidential correspondence.
Letter writing leads to the mastery of the technique of good writing.
Letter writing can provide an extension of the face-to-face therapeutic encounter.
Since at least a small fee is required, sending a large number of irrelevant letters becomes more expensive than e-mail.

The following advantages are put forward for e-mails and text messages over traditional letters:

They can be transmitted instantly.
They can be sent to a number of recipients in one operation.
They do not require a postage fee.
They do not require materials such as paper and ink.
Often an e-mail would require a less formal style than a letter to the same recipient, and thus may take less time to write. It is also easier to make amendments to a draft than it is with a handwritten letter.
E-mails may be composed using spell checkers and other devices, and thus may conceal the ignorance of the sender.
During an epidemic, e-mails cannot transmit diseases.
Emails do not take up physical space and cannot be damaged in a natural disaster.