Rainer Maria Rilke may have seen something of his own young self when he responded to a letter from an aspiring young poet. We would do well to be as kind to who we used to be.

Through the letters they exchanged and their shared love for used books, Helene Hanff and Frank Dole developed a lifelong friendship from an ocean apart.

Tolkien’s letters give us glimpses of the writer’s life, his inspirations, and the basis of his hopes for a world he saw steadily slipping away. By Michael Toscano

Love letters penned in the Second World War offer surprising insights into the nature of time and the vicissitudes of social media. By Joel Cuthbertson