5/21/2023 0 Comments To the Letter by Simon Garfield![]() ![]() ![]() In the process you find yourself wondering how Erasmus managed to reform the world while knocking out scores of communiques a day (at the end of his life the Dutchman reckoned he had spent over half of it writing to people, an annoying number of whom didn't bother to write back). Still, the nice thing about letters is that they lend themselves to rereading, and Garfield provides us with substantial extracts over which to pore. There's Abelard and Heloise, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller and a whole coach-party of Pastons. There are no surprises in the pageant of epistolary superstars that Garfield summons to celebrate the deckle-edged past. Now Garfield turns his attention to letters, yet another cultural form that looks as though it might soon be going the way of all paper. On the Map arrived just as sat navs made battered A–Zs redundant. Just My Type explored the historical nooks and crannies of Gill Sans and Times New Roman at the moment everyone was tipping towards e-readers. ![]() Over the last few years Simon Garfield has made it his job to remind us of what we risk losing in the rush towards a virtual world. ![]()
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