Fred over at Spitball Army has a lovely letter project going on.
He has a collection of letters he has transcribed from a couple called Bev and Ande who correspond during the early days of the war. Fred does an awesome job of transcribing for ease of reading, but also includes scans of the letters and pictures. He adds links to relevent historical information so you get a real full-bodied experience.
This is a great example of why letters are an important part of our social and cultural past. It gives one a real experience of the moments, not just a restated third-party telling of the tale.
Bev and Ande’s story is addictive. Go give it a try!
Tags: bev and ande, history, old letters, spitball army
This entry was posted
on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 8:40 am and is filed under history.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thanks a lot for the “shout out,” Wendy!
Transcribing letters has many fringe benefits beyond reading the fascinating life stories of others: learning about historical context, language styles, cultural differences…in addition to being a great inspiration when writing my own letters (which I constantly struggle to do!). The Bev & Ande letters were particularly interesting because the correspondence was completely one-way to Ande, and that singularity created a very unique dramatic tension. I’ve always held a curiosity about life during WW2, as I know many other folks do, and these letters whet that appetite.
Keep up the great work on your blog!
Fred O.
Hi Fred. I am just glad I can tell everyone how you rock.