Letters of note

"Correspondence just ain’t what it used to be.

At least it hasn’t been since September, when freelance writer Shaun Usher launched Letters of Note. The blog, as Usher explains on the homepage, “is an attempt to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos.”

And fascinating they are. Among the pieces Usher has recently posted: a letter sent by an Australian schoolboy “To a top scientist at Woomera’s Rocket Range” in Australia, an expletive-laden fax sent by Hunter S. Thompson to a film producer he called “you lazy b*tch”, Elvis Presley’s handwritten note requesting a meeting with President Richard Nixon, and South Park co-creator Matt Stone’s memo in response to the MPAA’s request that he edit the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut so it could get an R (rather than NC-17) rating. Needless to say, many are worthy of Twitter and Facebook LOLs. But the narratives that appear at Letters of Note aren’t mere exchanges of words (or abbreviations): Because Usher includes scans of the original correspondence whenever possible, messages often appear to layers of meaning and feeling that can be impossible to decipher in text messages, tweets, and emails.

As part of an ongoing series of interviews about projects related to literacy, literary matters, and society, I interviewed Usher last week about Letters of Note and its significance in an age where written correspondence is becoming increasingly rare. Here’s what he had to say:"

interview . com
check out the site here . com (its fuckign brilliant)