Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing passed earlier this week. In 1992, when offered a chance to become a Dame by the British monarchy, she wrote this letter back. Doris wasn’t one to mince words.
Dame of what?
Tag: Letters
Don’t feel bad that I’m gone [Letters of note]
Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, wrote two letters – one to his children & the other to family & friends – to be opened in the event of his death. “Don’t feel bad when I’m gone“
You mustn’t worry about Santa Claus [Letters of Note]
Michelle Rochon overheard her parents discuss the possibility of Russian nuclear tests over the North Pole. She decided to write to the President of the US about it. She was 8 years old. Her letter got a response from JFK.
People simply empty-out [Letters of note]
In 1969, publisher John Martin offered to pay Charles Bukowski $100 each and every month for the rest of his life, on one condition: that he quit his job at the post office and become a writer. 49-year-old Bukowski did just that, and in 1971 his first novel, Post Office, was published by Martin’s Black Sparrow Press.
15 years later, Bukowski wrote this letter to Martin and spoke of his joy at having escaped full time employment….
what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don’t want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.
Letter to a grandson [Letters of Note]
In October 1974, as he lay on his death bed at the end of a battle with cancer and reflected on his past, Clyde S. Shield (pictured above) wrote a heartfelt letter to his 3-week-old grandson and offered some poignant advice for the road ahead:
If I could package (with ribbon) those gifts that I would most like to give you, I would. But how do you package integrity, how do you wrap honesty, what kind of paper for a sense of humor, what ribbon for inquisitiveness?
Who is Karen Carpenter, really? [Letters of note]
Kim Gordon wrote this evocative letter to Karen Carpenter, she of “The Carpenters” fame, who died at the age of 32 of anorexia nervosa.
The best way to learn anything [Letters]
Few would disagree that Einstein knew what he was talking about. Maria Popova discovers a letter he wrote his 11 year old son with some advice
“That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.”
Sean Penn Acerbic Letter to Fox [Letters of Note]
Sean Penn wanted Fox to lend him a private jet to take him & his family to a screening of The Thin Red Line, in which he had starred. The good corporate folks at Fox declined, earning them this excoriating missive from Penn.
I am sorry for your loss [Letters of note]
The bulk of the medical profession separate their emotions from the patients that they treat. There are exceptions however, as this heartfelt letter from a doctor to the husband of a lady who recently passed away, demonstrates.
The story behind This note’s for you [Video]
In July of 1988, almost immediately after their world première of Neil Young’s “This Note’s for You” — a song and video in which various high profile musicians are mocked for endorsing brands such as Pepsi and Michelob — MTV placed a station-wide ban on the video due to “problems with trademark infringement.” In response, Young offered to re-shoot the video; however, MTV claimed the lyrics were just as problematic. Furious, he wrote the following open letter to the station’s executives.
6th July, 1988
MTV, you spineless twerps. You refuse to play “This Note’s For You” because you’re afraid to offend your sponsors. What does the “M” in MTV stand for: music or money? Long live rock and roll.
Neil Young
The stand-off was big news, and MTV eventually reversed the ban. “This Note’s for You” went on to win Video of The Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. source: Letters of Note