Letters of Note
Nothing but history's most interesting letters. Click to read Letters of Note, by Shaun Usher, a Substack publication.
- Posts
- 601 from 19 Sep 2009 to 30 Oct 2026
- Posting
- monthly (22 in the last year)
- Kind
- personal blog
- Feed
- https://news.lettersofnote.com/feed
2026 17
- One by one the lights go out
- A poet must write about love!
- It was all too sordid
- Nothing beats having good references
- To the Police Officer who helped me on September 11th
- I AM NOW ON CLOUD 9,000
- Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines
- I want to be the water that bathes you
- AIDS is not a disgrace, it is a TRAGEDY
- Please consider my own position
- You don't breathe, you bubble
- How clever and capricious you are
- Oh my God how I do hate species & varieties
- We are all sailing away to the sea
- He looks like a blimp
- I am surprised at the conduct of the young woman
- What we have got to have in this world is a change of heart
2025 58
- The crime of malicious rottenness
- The anguish must be borne
- All my senses are being tortured simultaneously
- What do I want for Christmas?
- It’s a masterpiece
- 1984 v A Brave New World
- I love my wife, my wife is dead
- A great desert lies ahead of me
- Diaries of Note is here
- Do you think I shall ever write a really good book?
- He came and rearranged our molecules
- How to turn down an invitation
- A few moments ago I was handed my very first American fan letter
- Spook, Spuck, Spack, Speek, Spouk, Spaak, Spilk, Spiak, Spunk, Spank, Spink...
- All the ladies like whiskers
- You must refill the hot tub after your parties
- Your books are still helping those who have remained
- Art is....
- I hope you will never get this letter
- Am I really writing it at all?
- You go to hell, you
- His life has now passed over into yours
- To The Man Who Killed My Dog
- What cure is there for human stupidity?
- Diaries of Note
- As of today, we are no longer enemies
- How do we exist, save on the lips of our friends?
- Take your pick
- The parakeet has a goiter
- Do 13c
- Mrs. Slob of 1961
- Farewell from your ROTTING DONKEY
- IT WAS A BUSY YEAR AND THEN IT WASNT
- There is no one around and I can really breathe
- I don’t know so well what I think until I see what I say
- He is the worst specimen I have met in 30 years’ service
- Spring is an explosion
- Most of your life will happen in the gray spaces between bliss and heartbreak
- I will make an infinite number of items for attack and defence
- I shall never be in
- The birds is coming
- No, no, no, sir! A thousand times no!
- I would accept neither his fame nor his fortune
- You can cry all the way to the bank
- Cross my heart and hope to die
- I intend firmly to ignore St. Valentine’s day
- Words of Note
- We the undersigned three Apes and a Wombat
- Songs Without Words
- The author intended the story to be repugnant
- It is more likely that I was doing 911 km/h
- A slightly ghoulish prospect looms today
- Would you please answer me this one question?
- Please don't see the film Eraserhead
- I’ll never see that smile again
- I promise that your future correspondence will be returned to you unopened
- You have given us so much more happiness than discontent
- Get out and begone to you, you horrible Old Year!
2024 85
- I thought I said no more birds
- What would I have done without you?
- The funniest looking Christmas party I ever saw
- Dame of what?
- Be a little vampire
- Lord what a repulsive remark to end with!
- All any of us can do is follow our own conscience and retain faith in our democracy
- I am Danny DeVito’s mother
- Hail to you who forever holds a tender spot in this immigrant’s heart
- ME HAVE COOKIE
- The Haitian people are noble and generous
- My life and creative work are justified and completed
- The Outsiders
- This is a present from a small distant world
- Be reasonable: what can I do?
- It literally touches all one’s senses
- ME? I LOVE SPRINGSTEEN!!!
- Have a Happy Period
- F I F T E E N
- What a horizon, what treasures of mind and spirit!
- You did justice to the dream of a child
- You provided us with the only possible remedy
- Excuse this ghastly handwriting
- How dare you
- Music to defecate to must be the final insult to the composer
- I must stop and fondle my dogs
- This country is in the hands of morons
- Please change your hold music
- He is a most exemplary young man
- Let us love each other
- I have never seen anything like it
- We will be millionaires before long
- The cat dumped a load in a Kleenex box
- I MISS LORINA BULWER
- I am not greatly troubled by fans nowadays
- You can beat it just like I did
- How d’you like my new vocabulary?
- The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish
- My brains are hanging out like a dog’s tongue
- This is specially for the back of your neck
- I would like to give you your own history
- Damn the mail!
- I feel she is alive and I know she needs us
- I have a new plan
- Power corrupts
- Maybe a word from you will save me
- Five accidents in two minutes
- When you love a man, don’t spoil everything by marrying him
- I wish you were a Kangaroo
- The tiger is in the library
- I AM DESPERATE TO HAVE SOME REAL FUN AGAIN
- I MADE A BAD MISTAKE
- This I saw, this I experienced, this I know to be the truth
- You’re nothing but a pimp
- Maybe we should ban suits
- I would rather...
- My mother declared my bedroom a disaster area
- You have made me unhappy
- Eddie's House
- There is no dam way you could ever match their dam skills
- A great deal of the meaning seems to have gone out of the world
- Go for it
- Don’t read that hogwash
- A lousy proposition
- Live a life worth living
- Drink it
- Wherever you go there are always people
- If you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine
- I meet the proposition with unutterable scorn and contempt
- The thermometer will burst
- I'm amputating you
- It’s Your Turn to Take Care of Grandma
- It was SUPPRESSED RANDINESS
- What a world
- My heart almost stood still
- This is not a letter
- The most dreadful lie you ever told me
- We are just temporary occupants of this office
- A Plea for a raise
- Let us toast to animal pleasures
- The spectacle sickened me
- My child was perfect
- What a bawling and a tearing of hair there will be!
- Show that to your teacher
- One of the best things is being alone
2023 109
- One lurch nearer the grave
- Know that you are loved
- Do you still remember me?
- I’ve rarely taken such a fancy to anyone, and I think she likes me
- Christmas is a rotten hype & all we can do is ride it out
- Only Lisa can make Lisa happy
- There is no hope in war
- The kids have been looking up the dietary laws in the bible
- Thank you Mr. President
- Most people don’t know at all how beautiful the world is
- Sleep well my love
- There are no heroes in this war
- There is no escape
- I am completely dazzled, bewitched, enchanted, under a spell
- Time is the only hope and refuge for all of us
- You are not so kind as you used to be
- I am a 91 yr. old woman so vulgarity isn’t smart with me
- “What is the natural enemy of a duck?”
- Dear all
- P. S. Did you know policemen are numbered in case they get lost?
- We must win in the end
- Don’t fall down
- I've had my eye on you
- I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits
- Love and lollipops
- How brave all these living things are
- I am silent because I have literally nothing to say
- The solitude of prison forces the mind to grapple with many things
- We should always be judged by our achievements, not by our gender
- I hope you know you have a friend
- To think that our dinner last night was the last time
- Please spare her
- My thoughts are with two remarkable women
- If you are not careful, I won't even put your name in the hat
- He is called Mick Jagger
- Is nature a gigantic cat?
- Everything was perfect but the aim
- Its true beauty was that it worked
- The Sun’s Fawlty Statement
- If we loved one another less I could not have written this
- I love you—the way you always are
- There's only one hate, and that is the hate for fascism
- Rents, git doon tae the f*ckin shops fir ays then ya c*nt!
- I can’t write unless the typewriter is rattling
- Hoping this will meet with your approval
- The disease is almost universal, and the fight against it endless
- Part of this world, part of another
- I hope and I hope and I hope
- Life is like riding a bicycle
- There are two kinds of people in the world
- You are not as dumb as I thought
- Forget your personal tragedy
- Fortunately, I had my new radio
- Avenge my death
- Who needs it?
- O God for one more breath
- Two and two could become five if the fuhrer wished it
- We have been the most patient of all people
- I would rather choose to be a plumber
- Happy 10th Anniversary Us
- Life isn’t a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown
- May the Force always be with you
- We are the gift
- What are your favourite letters?
- I have taken the liberty of rolling it up very tightly
- Dear “Dr.” Fields
- I am not going to stand for it
- Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated
- A library is many things
- I hope you will never see this letter
- Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one
- Walk proud as you are
- The proverbial “really good” science-fiction movie
- Ought women not to be abolished altogether?
- Yours Robotically
- My pink cactus is probably going to flower
- You shall have your cup back
- We all make mistakes
- Losing a parent is something like driving through a plate-glass window
- Articulate speech was transmitted intelligibly this afternoon
- I believe flyers should be permitted the same privileges as writers or actresses
- I have learnt to master myself
- Host extravagantly, love constantly, dance in comfortable shoes
- Wistfully yours
- You are the dearest daughter a man could have
- Wherever you go there are always people
- "Which of the two heaps is me, I wonder!"
- I walk into the fire always, and come out more alive
- I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of s@*t
- Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely
- Nothing good gets away
- Though I do not enjoy writing “moral tales” for the young, I do it because it pays well
- I am to be executed
- Tinkety tonk old fruit, & down with the Nazis
- Mistakes are to be forgiven but stupidity is a crime
- I would like to offer you a two-week holiday, or longer, at our house
- Only the united beat of sex and heart together can create ecstasy
- Into Eternity
- Saw it, loved it, ate it
- I wrote a book called THE GODFATHER
- All for love and honor
- Don't let anyone define who you are
- King, like all frauds your end is approaching
- I really am a loathsome little coward
- I hope you don’t feel too disappointed
- Ym raed Yssac
- It is only adults who ever feel threatened
- I only wash my feet once a month at school, which I confess is nasty
- You are not lazy, and still you are an idler
2022 164
- I have just been through one of the most extraordinary scenes imaginable
- Look for me in the trees. I will be there in the trees.
- Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
- Christmas should be more than just external things, Tommy
- Another stupid party last night
- Sometimes I think that one of the reasons why we are fighting this war is because we want to save Christmas
- I talked with Santa yesterday and he is fine
- She was the beat of my heart for thirty years
- To hell with Christmas
- Your playing has got worse and worse
- Never think of remorse
- You can’t have a show with no audience
- I am speaking on behalf of 640 kids who all HATE you
- There are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do...
- I’m going to keep hustling and scuffling
- I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large
- Your birthday shall always be a Thanksgiving Day to me
- We feel doubly bereft
- By the time I was in the fifth grade, I knew I either wanted to be a nun or a movie star
- God's Law
- That the situation is hopeless should not prevent us from doing our best
- It always seems to me that so few people live — they just seem to exist
- You will not have my hatred
- I’ve been a prisoner of war since December 19th, 1944...
- Take life seriously but none of the people in it
- I intend to spend the rest of my life wasting time
- I thought of you, as the flames shot up
- I long to surprise him with terrific disguises
- I shall always be with you
- Portentous, derisive, dull, dismal, damnable...
- MY MUSE MAY SPOOK! MAY BOLT! MAY ABANDON ME COMPLETELY!
- I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war
- >SAY YES I NEED A JOB
- How to say no
- Every page fills me with a sick loathing
- May I suggest that Mr. Bond be armed with a revolver?
- It was hard to give five sons all at once to the Navy
- I think one of the noblest projects for anyone in age is to find a shape in his life
- A spectacle, not of reverent mourning, but of intolerable ignorance
- I will NOT give up the belief in true love
- The Creative Urge
- Most letters from a parent contain a parent’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice
- I cannot bear to think of Lilibet, so young to bear such a burden
- Allow me to enlighten your readers...
- Art is an adventure into an unknown world
- Tears don't flow the same in space
- If we love, we grieve. That’s the deal.
- I do not wish to spend the rest of my life with my nose nailed to other people’s lavatories
- The longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell
- I consider reading the greatest bargain in the world
- The Ax
- Torturing the Saxophone
- I refuse to be cheated out of my deathbed scene
- Thom seems to be a baby-shaped baby and I like him very much
- Your name is upon every tongue
- You puked on everything decent I ever owned
- Modern life is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief
- If you only had a Beatle haircut you would be the most beautiful man in the whole wide world
- I wonder what your true beliefs really are
- You always believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself
- This rain of atomic bombs will increase manyfold in fury
- Live like a mighty river
- What a hell of a bore to have to think of it even
- The differences are really negligible, apart from so far not falling over and breaking my leg
- The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off
- I don’t think lady-footballers will ever be able to ‘shoot’ goals
- So perfect is my love for you that I am, as it were, still, silent to my very soul
- Others believe a poet ought to go to the Moon
- If I ever get to be 91, I hope I’ll be as mean as you are
- I suppose a skonk had been there or else a hen In the shape of a skonk
- I shall always be near you
- I can be patient no longer
- Thou shalt dwell in houses thou hast not builded
- Don’t try to make yourself into somebody perfect
- You Babylonian scullion
- If you cut his side burns off we will just die!
- Just a static present, surrounded by a wall of anxiety
- THIS IS INSTEAD OF TELEPHONING BECAUSE I CANT LOOK YOU IN THE VOICE
- One must work and riot and throw oneself into the whirl
- I feel obliged to offer my services in the continuing struggle against the cursed Death Eaters
- Your work is an insult to your intelligence
- You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence
- Do you take us for a gang of brainless lizards?
- GO TO HELL WITH YOUR MONEY
- I think your work is quite incredible
- No dream can do justice to you
- How did you get invented?
- Dear Miss Absolutely Amazing Thing
- Nothing else matters
- You are the unexploded bomb to me
- The moths who had sampled your loin wares found that they could not digest them
- Thank you for the unexpected and unsolicited submission of your p*** portrait for our consideration
- Man remains the cruelest of all animals
- Of all the bête, clumsy, blundering, boggling, baboon-blooded stuff I ever saw on a human stage...
- What great births you have witnessed!
- You were a brilliant light for me in a sometimes dark childhood
- Even my bones seem to cry for you
- Write to me when you get this, or before you do, only write and tell me all there is to tell me
- Please don’t let anyone Americanise it!
- Every writer has his own voice
- History has taught you nothing if you think you can kill ideas
- I am clearly suspect and not believable
- I am afraid I’m much too important to write notes to people like you
- I wonder if you could do a drawing for me of an explosive slab of chocolate
- Cruella is magnificent
- Fashions in fear change, but do people?
- You must let me cry my cry for him
- Also...
- King Sequoia! Behold! Behold!
- We left the camp singing
- No son of mine is going to write stories LIKE THAT and live in MY HOUSE!
- Thank you for your letter. I shall try to do better.
- One means of sanity is to retain a hold on the natural world
- It will be sunny one day
- The crabs of the world seem to fly to me
- Don't shake my tree
- I was intoxicated as to pass all bounds
- Diversity guarantees our cultural survival
- I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor
- What did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for?
- Like a tree in full bearing struck at the root
- Arkell v. Pressdram
- I would like to be paid like a plumber
- I love her more than anything in the world & always have
- How dare you
- These children had no homes—and nothing to eat. The cruel Nazis had bombed their cities.
- Always believe you can change the world
- May I submit UTOPIAN TURTLETOP?
- She doesn't answer the phone
- Do scientists pray?
- All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks
- Your eager mother
- Letters Live at the Royal Albert Hall
- I decline to sit in a hot room and eat dead animals, even with you to amuse me.
- You’d better send me a letter. I don’t faint from letters.
- I always believed in my heart that we had a great deal in common
- In many ways we feel your pain
- For the sake of humanity
- I was knighted this morning...
- Very untruly yours
- When Death Comes
- Oh, God, how it hurts to write this
- Five accidents in two minutes
- 'Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be'
- Brown is as pretty as white or prettier
- 'He was a force for evil in the world'
- A literary charlatan of the extremest order
- 'I love you, I want you, I need you unbearably.'
- You know who Nina is, don’t you?
- To My Old Master
- My heart bursts with pain
- Always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud.
- Her Majesty's Drop Scones
- Nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us
- Only unselfishly can you enjoy life to the fullest
- To: My Widow
- Make your own unique messes
- 'I saw a romantic structure wrought by human brains & hands that is to the burning eye of the sun a rival luminary'
- A gross failure of responsibility
- 'There is no telling where I may apply, if you turn me down'
- I hope one day to get to America
- My name is Sidney Poitier
- A string of unfortunate events
- Sorrow passes and we remain
2021 143
- Wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day
- The most beautiful work of all
- 'It is a princely gift and I shall wear it with arrogance'
- 'I thought I, and the many friends I encourage to stay at the Savoy, were considered GUESTS, not thieves!'
- 'You and I, and everyone else, were born with the same purpose'
- In the very assurance of sorrow’s fading there is more sorrow
- Seat 29E
- 'He is already your slave. This would make him mine.'
- IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER
- 'BANGO — I'm a star'
- 'I return your seasonal greetings card with contempt'
- I miss my biggest heart
- 'Your credibility, your integrity and your honor are things no company should be able to buy'
- I miss you so very much, Ryan
- Picture the scene
- 'Along with this letter comes a play'
- We were not found wanting
- An idiot of the 33rd degree
- 'An instrument of joy'
- Some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters
- 'There is no danger down here'
- Nothing good gets away
- 'Make your soul grow'
- 'I got your letter and realised at once that it was from you'
- I am pretty much disgusted with human behaviour most of the time
- The life and the work are equally important
- 'Let us blaze new trails'
- "It's the most wonderful life on earth"
- 'There is always more surface to a shattered object than a whole'
- 'I never ever thought things could be so wonderful!'
- Don't feel bad that I'm gone
- Don't worry about growing up
- "I've got a hunch"
- Dear New York City
- Bringing a child into the world makes sense only if this child is wanted consciously and freely by its two parents
- You would be so proud
- 'With my weak organs I am very fond of you'
- "Words, in case you don't know, are beautiful"
- Everything comes to an end
- A PERSONAL LETTER FROM STEVE MARTIN
- I would like to retain ‘fart in your general direction’
- NEED SMALL BOAT
- Grief is non-negotiable
- Your cow must be a miracle
- All I know is asthma
- Forgive me forgive me forgive me
- Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life
- 'You may love your husband very much, but you should face the fact that he has no talent'
- I am so proud of you, our Soviet girl
- 'Once more I am a wretch'
- What did you say? I can't hear you…
- That’s right, I was beaten up at a charity recording. Your charity recording.
- And how are all of you?
- Yours in distress
- Each egg is a perfect thing
- Our differences unite us
- How could you go ahead of me?
- I’m exhausted all over but particularly the face
- This is my favorite memo ever
- She was the music heard faintly at the edge of sound
- Shaking the shanks
- It could go two ways with us
- We feel doubly bereft
- The last mad Empire on earth
- Never get a bulldog
- Update 598
- Max Standby
- Mrs Roberts succeeded in getting under my skull
- I like words
- Please rescue me
- You have experienced an aloneness unknown to man before
- A pile of 5000 cats and kittens
- That multiform & encyclopedic bastard
- He saw it, he loved it, he ate it
- I will not be edited
- The Birth of the Football League
- It bangs one about until one is senseless
- Oh Christ, the cook is dead
- The point of being an artist is that you may live
- Most of all I shall remember the monarchs
- Don't forget us
- We all feel like that now and then
- We press you close and kiss you with all our strength
- (not one of your best)
- New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day
- I was wedged tight, up to my neck, in a huge tub of lard
- The canvas has an idiotic stare
- I find that lately more and more my fingers itch for a piano
- I can't fight any longer
- Follow your dreams, not your boyfriends
- We are dancing not on a volcano, but on the rotten seat of a latrine
- You must stop writing these little love letters to my husband
- Thank you, and I hope you choke
- Get there or die; this day or never.
- What have I done to deserve this?
- I am unable to accept your rejection at this time
- There isn’t any one “correct” way to score a film
- The loss of you lingers
- Prayers for rain
- The difference between us is very marked
- I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way
- Words are hard
- Why do we keep talking about these dumdums?
- Life is a phenomenon but not a novelty
- I used the Encyclopedia Britannica as a trouser-press
- ALL I HAVE IS A PILE OF PAPER COVERED WITH WRONG WORDS
- What is a minute?
- Isn’t it a good thing that all the bad stuff isn’t bunched up together in one person?
- You were in her thoughts
- Dirty bacon dirtier eggs and dirtiest Potatoes
- People simply empty out
- I simply can't write letters.
- Really, Mr. Walpole!
- I’m going to mope about you and then I’m going to have a bath and I’m going to mope about you in the bath.
- I loathe, I abhor the sea, & all ships which sail on it
- This letter is not a grumble
- I’m in a cursed mood and can’t bear the human face
- Dear Person
- Sweetheart come
- What is this thing called Zsa Zsa Gabor?
- Tomorrow we’ll be blown sky high
- EVERYONE has knocks
- I am only one, only one, only one.
- Letters of Note: Love
- P.S. I love you
- We smelt of not washing all over
- Columning is a deadly occupation
- Those golden words turn to dust
- Thou pickle-herring in the puppet-show of nonsense!
- I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything
- I want more money I want more money I want more money...
- He asked only for equality
- I prefer to die with my head unbowed
- I stole your hat. I like your hat. I shall keep your hat.
- Try growing up
- One can't be angry when one looks at a Penguin
- STAR TREK PLANET VULCAN PROPER NAMES
- Thank you
- 'I must give myself the sack'
- 'It's snowing (big flakes) and I love you'
- Don't shake my tree
- I embrace you with all my heart
- Unlikely Letters of Note
2020 16
- The old year had to die
- When to stop
- Trumpetly yours
- The Matchbox
- Our Frank
- My dearest not too repellent you
- Do you remember two kinds of Christmases?
- I hate everybody including you
- "I am your Rock N’ Roll nightmare"
- I will be there in the trees
- Turkey, pudding, tips, waits, holly, good wishes, presents, sweets...
- Letters Live from the Archive
- This is quite true
- FROM ONE SOUL BROTHER TO ANOTHER
- Hughes Got Mail
- The Letturrection