The 64-Year Letter

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!

Tags: great idea, history, long letter, round robin