Of Hand and Heart: In Defense of the Love Letter

I’ve got a bone to pick with Valentine’s Day.

And, no, it’s not because I was left eating a box of chocolates alone on Tuesday night.

It’s because of the plastic coating the whole day has, the lack of genuineness in all of the mass-produced greeting cards that have replaced the handwritten love letters of the past.

Wait, people actually used to write love letters? By hand? You bet.

When he wasn’t busy composing some of the greatest symphonies of all time, Ludwig Van Beethoven was busy composing something else. After his death, a ten page letter, written in pencil and addressed to his “Immortal Beloved,” was found amongst his possessions. He ends the letter with the lines

“What longing with tears for you – you – you my love – my all – farewell – o continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.”

On December 23, 1782, Abigail Adams wrote the following lines in a letter to her husband and future President of the United States John Adams:

“should I draw you the picture of my Heart, it would be what I hope you still would Love; tho it containd nothing New; the early possession you obtained there; and the absolute power you have ever mantaind over it; leaves not the smallest space unoccupied.”

Lord Byron is known the world over for his uncanny ability to woo with his words. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he is also known as a womanizer, but on August 25, 1819, Byron wrote one of the most famous love letters of all time to the Italian-speaking Countess Teresa Guiccioli:

“You will not understand these English words, and others will not understand them,–which is the reason I have not scrawled them in Italian. But you will recognize the handwriting of him who passionately loved you, and you will divine that, over a book which was yours, he could only think of love. In that word, beautiful in all languages, but most so in yours–Amor mio–is comprised my existence here and hereafter.”

While in prison for dating Olympe Dunover, Voltaire wrote the following lines in a letter to his beloved:

“I am a prisoner here in the name of the King; they can take my life, but not the love that I feel for you. Yes, my adorable mistress, to-night I shall see you, and if I had to put my head on the block to do it.”

He escaped from his prison cell shortly after the letter was sent by climbing out the cell’s window.

The handwritten love letter may be a lost art, but it isn’t one that should be forgotten. Nothing is more intrinsically connected to you than your thoughts etched by your hand.

If you’re looking for a way to say “I love you” next Valentine’s Day, there’s no better way than with a pencil and a piece of paper.

Photo by Plusverde.