Letterjoy

by Chris Reeder

This past Christmas, my sisters and I shared the expense of a special gift to our mother. She has been raving ever since. You see, mom has always been an avid reader and history buff. Many a family dinner conversation during my childhood had reference to a historical figure or event. We stumbled upon an interesting company called Letterjoyand we are so glad we did.

Letterjoy gift-givers can choose personal memberships or gift weekly historical letters from figures like Benjamin Franklin, or photographer Ansel Adams, to someone they care about. Each printed letter is accompanied by a carefully researched “ postscript” section which describes the context of the associated letter, who the author and recipient were, and how the contents of the letter relate to other events throughout history.

Michael Sitver, a young college student, created Letterjoy, to provide “ spontaneous weekly dose of history and an enjoyable offline escape from the age of iPhones. ”

The letters sent by Letterjoy are found in archives, institutions, small libraries and private collections all over the world. “Sometimes we have to go to out-of-print books because a lot of the letters are not necessarily written by famous people, ” he said. This was true of mom ’ s first letter, written by a newly freed slave sharing details about her new life. Mom shared that her penmanship was extra-ordinarily beautiful script.

Letters mainly focus on American history from 1600-1960, but the company covers a wide array of subjects within that time period, and topics are explored from different angles every week. One of the topics mom is looking most forward to is “Civil War Spies ” .

The experience of tearing into her latest envelope- to pull out a surprising letter on actual paper, sent through the US Postal service with a real stamp- is one my mom has thoroughly enjoyed. She saves each letter until she can sit (socially-distanced of course) with her friends. Then she opens her letter and reads the contents to her buddies. She told me she likes to read in the voice she imagines each author to have had, making it more of a performance. I imagine her rapt audience, and mom just enjoying the spotlight, as she does. She also enjoys reading them to me over the phone, especially since we haven ’t seen each other in so long.

Letterjoy has certainly lived up to its name for us bring extra JOY to mom, and her friends during the time of COVID. If you are interested in learning more about Letterjoy, their website is: https://www.letterjoy.co/