– Mike Royko (1932—1997), from a letter to Carol Joyce Duckman (1934—1979), postmarked April 28, 1954, in “Royko in Love: Mike’s Letters to Carol”, by Mike Royko and David Royko
“I read with ecstasy your dear words about your loving me. You write: ‘Love me.’ But don’t I love you? It’s just that expressing myself in words sickens me, but you could see a lot for yourself, but it’s too bad that you are unable to see. […] And my ecstasy and delight are inexhaustible. […] So as to finish this tirade, I swear that I am dying to kiss every toe on your foot, and I’ll achieve my goal, you’ll see. You write: ‘But what if someone reads our letters?’ Let them, of course; let them be envious.”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821—1881), from a letter to his wife, Anna Dostoevskaya (1846—1918), dated August 28, 1879
“Good Morning Faraway Nearest One:
It’s just six.”
– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated September 23, 1923, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″
“It is not only your mind that attaches me to you, it is above all your excellent heart.”
– Joseph Fouche (1759—1820), from a letter to Germaine de Staël (1766—1817), Paris, dated March 24, 1815, in “Madame de Staël. Selected correspondence”, translated by Kathleen Jameson-Cemper
“Today I was hoping for news from you again; I thought there would be some but nothing came. Well, I hope perhaps on Monday. I am alone and am just very full of yearning for you.”
– Marie Bader (1886—1942), from a letter to Ernst Löwy (1880—1943), Karlín, dated Saturday evening, August 2, 1941, in: “Life and Love in Nazi Prague. Letters from an Occupied City. Marie Bader”, translated by Kate Ottevange
“Well you must have dreamt, dreamt at least, that you were my wife, when I dreamt, perhaps the same day, but also only dreamt, that you were standing close to me in some room, in a salon, so
close that I was unutterably hot; then I didn’t know, did I embrace you, or did I only want to embrace you? But I always want to dream about you. It’s said one can’t help one’s dreams, whatever they are. But it was so lifelike that I wished that the beautiful, intoxicating dream wouldn’t stop. And afterwards during the day? One sobers up! Do remember me a little; and I’ll imagine your dreams for myself. My wife! See, how easily it comes! The dear Lord cares for us, and is good! What can’t be in any other way he gives at least as a dream.”
– Leos Janacek (1854—1928), from a letter to Kamila Stosslova (1891—1935), dated July 17, 1924, in: “Intimate Letters: Leoš Janáček to Kamila Janáček”, translated by John Tyrrell
“We are alike in that we are really free in our feelings & we say what we feel – And that seems to be rare – I wonder why – Is it?”
– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), New York City, dated January 22, 1918, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″
“I’d want just a single answer, just one wish on earth, just a single desire, just a single
certainty: will we belong to each other completely?”
– Leos Janacek (1854—1928), from a letter to Kamila Stosslova (1891—1935), dated May 5, 1927, in: “Intimate Letters: Leoš Janáček to Kamila Janáček”, translated by John Tyrrell
“I have become fairly calm again but for a few days last week I was in an awful state physically. I felt utterly disorientated, weary of life, miserable. I truly believed this could not go on. Then your letter arrived and everything was good, as if all my troubles were blown away.”
– Marie Bader (1886—1942), from a letter to Ernst Löwy (1880—1943), Karlín, dated October 28, 1941, in: “Life and Love in Nazi Prague. Letters from an Occupied City. Marie Bader”, translated by Kate Ottevange
“I wonder what you are to me – it’s like father, mother, brother, sister, best man and woman friend, all mixed up in one – I love you greatly”
– Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1886), from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), Canyon, Texas, dated December 14, 1917, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″
“I think of you as my wife, dear to me as you ever will be, and happy will be the home when you are given to my care and love.”
– Nathaniel Dawson (1829—1895), from a letter to Elodie Todd (1840—1877), Manassas Junction, dated August 1, 1861, in: “Practical Strangers. The Courtship Correspondence of Nathaniel Dawson and Elodie Todd, Sister of Mary Todd Lincoln”, edited by Stephen Berry and Angela Esco Elder
“ – My mind full of you & me. – Our togetherness. – Its beginning – its state now.”
– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), New York City, dated June 8, 1929, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″
“Each one of us carries within himself his necropolis.”
– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to George Sand (1804—1876), dated November 11, 1866, in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie
“I no longer write to you to tell you the things that I constantly think about you since I’m well aware that they must leave you cold. But tributes to which you are little less indifferent I hasten to bring to your attanetion.”
– Marcel Proust (1871—1922), from a letter to Anna de Noailles (1876—1933), dated Saturday evening, March 12, 1904, in: “Selected Letters, Vol. 2: 1904—1909”, translated from the French by Terence Kilmartin
“I pray for you nightly”
– Carrie Hughes (1873—1938), from a letter to Langston Hughes (1902—1967), dated June 7, 1935, in: “My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes’s Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926—1938”
“You are as fine as the white night last night – Yes, your soul is that fine – The world is a hard place for fine souls – ”
– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated September 23, 1923, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″
“Your letter has deeply moved me. To the world I seem, by intention on my part, a dilettante and dandy merely – it is not wise to show one’s heart to the world – and as seriousness of manner is the disguise of the fool, folly in its exquisite modes of triviality and indifference and lack of care is the robe of the wise man. In so vulgar an age as this we all need masks.”
– Oscar Wilde (1854—1900), from a letter to Philip Houghton, dated? Late February, 1894, in: “Oscar Wilde: A Life In Letters”
“Above