Why are we not writing love letters anymore?

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. — George Sand (letter to Linda Calamatta on March 31, 1862)



At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. — Plato



It is tragic that in this so-called modern, hurried and sophisticated world of ours where most people prefer the abbreviated, intentionally misspelled, instantaneous and seemingly impersonal text messages, e-mails or mass greeting cards, the elegance of handwritten love letters sealed in an envelope has become a lost and forgotten art.

In the same way that I refuse to believe that Internet books or e-books will someday totally replace our present experience of savoring hardcover or paperback books, I still believe that the old-fashioned love letters written by hand still have a unique and enchanting effect on the object of our affection, more so than modern electronic alternatives. There are even ways to correctly fold handwritten letters. Why aren’t we writing more love letters?

The girls that I have courted have inexplicably motivated and inspired me to compose the most sublime, romantic and wittiest love letters I never imagined could come from me. I could even write poetry!

There was a girl whom I dated every day for 30 days straight, and every time I brought her home, I would rush back to my place to write her a handwritten love letter at night on custom-made personalized letterhead on Strathmore paper and drop it off at her house. On the 30th day, she agreed to be my girlfriend.

Once I had a tumultuous relationship with a girlfriend, which was not her fault and which I eventually ended after the third time because my logical mind said so; but days later, when I changed my mind again, she was gone forever. In those six months I wrote her a love letter every day with pure and utmost sincerity, and have never regretted doing so.

If I get married, my love letters shall not end. I plan to write a love letter to my future wife — no matter how short or simple like a note — often and as long as we live, not just on anniversaries or Valentine’s Day. Why? It’s because I’m a hopeless romantic.

Why am I in love with love letters? It’s because I believe we should somehow express or articulate our love to others, in deed and in word. It’s because I can’t express my affection and total devotion often enough when I’m overwhelmed by that magical phenomenon called love. It’s because I believe there is something powerful, incomparably intimate and profoundly sincere in sending others handwritten notes or letters, especially in this era of texts and e-mails.

Let me share a few love letters by some fascinating personalities in the past:



• English poet Rupert Brooke wrote this letter to Noel Olivier. He was killed in World War I at the young age of 28:

October 2, 1911

I have a thousand images of you in an hour; all different and all coming back to the same... And we love. And we’ve got the most amazing secrets and understandings. Noel, whom I love, who is so beautiful and wonderful. I think of you eating omelet on the ground. I think of you once against a skyline: and on the hill that Sunday morning.

And that night was wonderfullest of all. The light and the shadow and quietness and the rain and the wood. And you. You are so beautiful and wonderful that I daren’t write to you... And kinder than God.

Your arms and lips and hair and shoulders and voice — you.

Rupert Brooke

• One of my favorite heroes was the French military genius and prolific letter-writer Napoleon Bonaparte (1763—1821), who wrote this letter before his 1796 marriage to the beautiful Josephine and before his coronation as emperor:

Paris, December 1795

I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet, incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart! Are you angry? Do I see you looking sad? Are you worried?... My soul aches with sorrow, and there can be no rest for you lover; but is there still more in store for me when, yielding to the profound feelings which overwhelm me, I draw from your lips, from your heart a love which consumes me with fire? Ah! it was last night that I fully realized how false an image of you your portrait gives!

You are leaving at noon; I shall see you in three hours.

Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire.

• One of the greatest leaders in world history and a first-class writer, British statesman Winston Churchill wrote this love letter to his wife:

January 23, 1935

My darling Clemmie, 

In your letter from Madras you wrote some words very dear to me, about my having enriched your life. I cannot tell you what pleasure this gave me, because I always feel so overwhelmingly in your debt, if there can be accounts in love.... What it has been to me to live all these years in your heart and companionship no phrases can convey.

Time passes swiftly, but is it not joyous to see how great and growing is the treasure we have gathered together, amid the storms and stresses of so many eventful and to millions tragic and terrible years?

Your loving husband

• One of the best leaders of the US, the late President Ronald Wilson Reagan, was not only the "Great Communicator" to the public, he was also an old-fashioned romantic who wrote this love letter to his wife Nancy Reagan:

Aboard Air Force One

March 4 1983

Dear First Lady,

I know tradition has it that on this morning I place "Happy Anniversary" cards on your breakfast tray. But things are somewhat mixed up. I substituted a gift & delivered it a few weeks ago.

Still, this is the day, the day that marks 31 years of such happiness as comes to few men. I told you once that it was like an adolescent’s dream of what marriage should be like.  That hasn’t changed.

You know I love the ranch but these last two days made it plain I only love it when you are there. Come to think of it, that’s true of every place & every time. When you aren’t there I’m no place, just lost in time & space.

I more than love you, I’m not whole without you. You are life itself to me. When you are gone I’m waiting for you to return so I can start living again.

Happy Anniversary & thank you for 31 wonderful years.

I love you

Your Grateful Husband

In the future, perhaps I shall build the world’s first museum of the greatest love letters of all time. I shall collect love letters by great heroes, by writers, artists, by celebrities, showbiz stars, sports champions, even by the villains in history (maybe Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler were also romantic to their loved ones?) and by ordinary folks. Why? To promote the ideal of true, mature and eternal love as I envision it should be regardless of the widespread cynicism of our modern age, and to help revive the lost and forgotten art of writing love letters.

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Thanks for your messages! Comments, suggestions, jokes or criticisms welcome at willsoonflourish@gmail.com or wilson_lee_flores@yahoo.com.