Please Continue: Literary Correspondence as Conversation

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In Summary

The letters in this exhibit span a century of English literature, from the 1880s to the 1980s, and each one was sent with the hope that it would bring a response in return, continuing the conversation. Because the fiction writers and poets who wrote this correspondence were all devoted to the craft of writing, their missives are works of art in themselves, albeit more personal and playful than their published volumes had the freedom to be. Each author’s epistles express personality not only through the chosen text, but also through paper color, handwriting, choice of writing utensil, and the many other physical details required to complete and mail a letter. The messages also hint at the lives on the receiving end of the correspondence, prompting us to imagine responses to the questions asked, praises doled out, and affections expressed.

[Photograph of Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Peabody College professor Bert Roller (1893-1934) mainly collected items by and about Little Women author Louisa May Alcott, but his collection also includes items related to Alcott’s Transcendentalist friends, such as this photograph of poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Title	[Photograph of Ralph Waldo Emerson]
Creator	George Kendall Warren
Date	c. 1870
Source	Bert Roller Collection