Charles Dickens sends a young boy a desk, three books, and a letter bursting with warmth and wit. “Oh what a jolly old Godfather!” he hopes the child will say. An unpublished glimpse into the playful heart of a literary giant, writing not for the world, but for family.
In 1877, Alfred Niaudet introduces Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone to France. Two letters capture the awe of the first voice heard over a wire in Paris, a scientific and human breakthrough that marked the beginning of a new era in communication.
Two of France’s greatest poets, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, shared a tumultuous bond. In this brief and poignant letter from 1891, Verlaine may have been awaiting confirmation of Rimbaud’s death, a quiet moment suspended between rumor and grief, captured in the poet’s own hand.
In the searing heat of Aden, far from his tumultuous youth left behind, poet Arthur Rimbaud writes home. No verses, only the raw voice of exile, fatalism, and fading hope. A rare glimpse into the final years of a literary legend who chose silence over fame.
A French critic sees into the soul of Mrs. Dalloway, and Virginia Woolf writes back. From Tavistock Square, a rare letter reveals the joy of being truly understood, and the quiet bridge between two literary worlds. A moment of grace between writer and reader.