Signed, Sealed, Delivered

December 9, 2013
Perfect for devotes of pen and paper, Sankovitch’s (Tolstoy and the Purple Chair) new book examines her personal correspondence with family and friends and the letters of strangers, famous and obscure, and shows the reading of letters to be a pleasurable form of discovery and connection. In addition to insightful commentary on the liberating “cloak of privacy” that letters enjoy, Sankovitch details her experiences discovering letters in a shed in her new home, in a bookstore, and on a visit to a museum, as well as describing the paper on which the letters were written and the quality of the handwriting. Sankovitch looks at friendships and loves that are discovered and maintained through letters (for example, Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman), letters written to advice columnists, and final correspondences. Famous names cited here include Heloise and Abelard, Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, and Edward Gorey, but the book’s highlight turns out to be communications between lesser-known authors, for example, two childhood friends turned lovers or two free black women in love in the pre–Civil War North. The book is an enjoyable, if sentimental read and will likely inspire both old-fashioned letter reading and letter writing. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

February 15, 2014
In this age of e-mail, few appreciate any longer the deep joys and satisfactions that spring in mind and heart from writing and receiving letters. Sankovitch combs history to find exceptional correspondents. She recounts very famous pairs, such as H'lose and Abelard, whose intense relationship ended tragically. An interchange of letters between Joyce Maynard and J. D. Salinger linked an established writer with a devoted fan. Sankovitch offers dozens of other correspondents less celebrated but no less articulate. She finds troves of emotion in letters of condolence mourning the losses of John Kennedy and of Arthur Ashe. Politics gives way to simple love in the letters from the imprisoned Nelson Mandela to his Winnie. Not all letter writing is so benign: Sankovitch cites ransom notes demanding money for the return of the Lindbergh baby. More survey than anthology, this book should encourage readers to search out and read the letters' full texts.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)