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It kind of gets you right here to see the manliest men in history putting a pen to paper to express their soft side. We saw that in Teddy Roosevelt’s diary entry not long ago. On a happier subject, here’s a note that Samuel Clemens (also known as Mark Twain) wrote to his wife Olivia in 1888.
Hartford, Nov. 27/88
Livy Darling, I am grateful — gratefuler than ever before — that you were born, & that your love is mine & our two lives woven & welded together!
SLC.
See the full size version at Letters of Note. Link
(Image credit: The Mark Twain House & Museum)
But I’m willing to excuse that, because this love letter penned by the basketball great in 1980 is just so sweet. Jordan’s two-page note to his “dearest Laquette” sold at auction for $5,100.66; Letters of Note posted it in full this week with a transcript. The best part? “I am trying get down there a week from Feb. 14. If I do get the chance to come please have some activity for us to do together.” He might not have been too terribly smooth, but at least his handwriting was nice. Link
This letter to an unnamed “Immortal Beloved” was found in the personal papers of Ludwig van Beethoven after his death in 1827. Though there’s debate over whom the letters were written to, there’s not much debate about whether or not Beethoven had it bad for the woman. A snippet:
My bosom is full, to tell you much — there are moments when I find that speech is nothing at all. Brighten up — remain my true and only treasure, my all, as I to you. The rest the gods must send, what must be for us and shall.
Your faithful
Ludwig
Read the rest on Letters of Note. Link
via Flavorwire
Is the art of the love letter dead, or just dying? If more people knew about the great love letters of the past, maybe a few would take the trouble to put pen to paper and create something that the recipient will keep as a treasure. President Woodrow Wilson wrote beautiful love letters to his wife Ellen Louise Axeson, and after her death wrote to Edith Bolling Galt, who married him in 1915.
While wooing Edith, Wilson penned a series of love letters, some signed “Tiger” (Wilson was a Princeton alum, but this was before the university took on the tiger as its mascot.) In one, Wilson wrote, “You are more wonderful and lovely in my eyes than you ever were before; and my pride and joy and gratitude that you should love me with such a perfect love are beyond all expression, except in some great poem which I cannot write.” In another, he pines, “Please go to ride with us this evening, precious little girl, so that I can whisper something in your ear—something of my happiness and love, and accept this, in the meantime, as a piece out of my very heart, which is all yours but cannot be sent as I wish to send it by letter.”
You’ll find more examples of great love letters at mental_floss. Link
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A British man and his Spanish sweetheart have finally married after 16 years apart, brought together by a love letter thought lost.
Steven Smith and Carmen Ruiz-Perez, both 42 years of age, first met 17 years ago when she was a foreign exchange student in Southwest England. The relationship ended when she moved to France a year later for work. In an effort to rekindle the romance, Steven sent a letter to her mother’s home in Spain a few years later, where it was placed on a mantelpiece. It slipped behind the fireplace and was hidden for years, before being discovered by workers dismantling it for renovation work.
“When I got the letter I didn’t phone Steve right away because I was so nervous,” Ruiz-Perez told the Herald Express local newspaper.
“I nearly didn’t phone him at all. I kept picking up the phone then putting it down again.
“But I knew I had to make the call.”
When they were reunited, it was as if time had stood still, said Smith, a factory supervisor.
“When we met again it was like a film. We ran across the airport into each other’s arms. We met up and fell in love all over again. Within 30 seconds of setting eyes on each other we were kissing.
“I’m just glad the letter did eventually end up where it was supposed to be,” he said, after the couple married last Friday.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Here’s a dubious reason why Nigeria is such a hotbed for 419 scams (or better known as the Nigerian Letter scam): people there are astonishingly creative with the written words! Take, for instance, the Nigerian love letter – or in this case, love SMS or text as explained by Andrew Walker of BBC News:
Your mobile phone beeps, you have received a text message.
It begins: “I swear, I will make sure I give you HIV…”
But it’s not an abusive threat, it’s a “romantic” text message copied from a book on sale all over Nigeria that professes to give young people the words they need to court the woman or man of their dreams.
“H is for Happiness and joy forever with an I: Incomparable love that will never V: Vanish until death do us part. I love you,” the message concludes.
With a lot of cheesy “love text” examples: Link – via emtoast
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by randystott.
Psst – you’ve got a secret admirer. Well, actually not yet … but you will, if Jake Bronstein of Zoomdoggle has his ways. The always-fun Jake (who came up with ideas-so-wacky-they’re-brilliant like the Fun-O-Meter and randomly thanking customer service reps posted previously on Neatorama) wants to write you a love letter.
All you have to do is give him an address (name optional) and he’ll take care of the rest:
When was the last time you got a love letter? Get ready to reset the counter, cause Zoomdoggle & Co. wants to send you one. Really. Hand written, and one of kind too. Just send an address, name optional, to loveletters at zoomdoggle dot com, or post it in the comments section, then keep an eye on the mailbox. It’s coming. And, if you’re anything like us, you’d be surprised how good it’s going to feel. Even coming from a stranger.
