I’m sorry I didn’t find this in time for Valentine’s Day, but better late than never, I guess!

Check out this article on a handbook from the 12th century for how to write love letters. I think it would be fun to try some of these. Maybe if you start practicing now you will be ready for Valentine’s Day next year!

Have you ever heard of a round robin letter? I have never done one, but I have heard of them.

It’s a letter where you have a group of people and you basically write letters in a circle — Person 1 sends her letter to Person 2. That person writes a letter and then sends his letter AND Person 1’s letter to Person 3 who writes a letter and sends ALL the letters on to Person 4. The pattern continues until all the letters make it back to Person 1. She then removes her original letter and replaces it with a new one, then sends the whole batch on to Person 2 again. Ad infinitum.

A few years ago someone published something called a Circle Journal which was basically the same idea except you wrote in the book and sent it around. I always thought that one was a little awkward because who is the lucky one who gets to keep the book when you’re done?

The bummer with the round robin letter is that you don’t get to keep any of the other letters. On the other hand, you do end up with a selection of your own letters which is like having a diary of sorts, I suppose.

Recently I read this news article about a woman who participated in a 64-year-long round robin letter. Can you imagine??

In our links collection, I have a link to a site called Robin Flies Again. That one will take you to a 50-year-long round robin and there you can actually see some of the letters.

Go check both of these stories out. Maybe it will inspire you to start your own!

I recently found an article about 3,000 letters and other writings of Hemingway that has been in a museum in Cuba.

The release of the Hemingway archive is part of a joint project between the Cuban National Cultural Heritage Council and the US Social Science Research Council.

As Cuba celebrated the 50th anniversary of the revolution yesterday, the Hemingway project marked a warming of relations between two countries that have been at loggerheads ever since. An expectation is growing that Raúl Castro, the Cuban President, may hold talks with Barack Obama, the US President-elect.

Great news, for a great new year!

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!

One of my favorite letters of all time is the letter from Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby, the mother of five sons who were in the Civil War. You might know this letter from a scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan and handled in such a moving way in the film.

Recently, a copy of the letter was discovered in the archives of a Texas museum and is in the process of being appraised and authenticated. If you want to know more, you can read the whole news story at AOL News. You can read the text of the letter below.

Let’s get back to writing letters like this! How shall we start?

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam,–

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln