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The value of letters
Aside from their use as a means of correspondence, letters can be seen as an accurate representation of people’s lived experiences during different historical eras, and much information can be gleaned from what we read in letters both public and private. Letters tend to be valuable for many reasons, and were used in Victorian times for several purposes. Some of these purposes are laid out by James Willis Westlake, a Victorian author. First, Westlake says letters are valuable in acquiring knowledge of past people and events. Secondly, he believes they are important in gaining insight into the moral lives of great people after which one’s own behavior could be modeled. Finally, Westlake claims that one may use the letters of well-written and eloquent individuals to adapt and improve his or her own letter-writing style. In the New London Fashionable Gentleman’s Writer, we find an example of the third usage of letter writing: a collection of quaint correspondences between hopeful men and the ladies they wished to court. Such a manual may have been used by anxious men as they prepared to write to their love interests and express their feelings, and perhaps by women as they decided how best to accept or reject the advances. Some prominent figures of the day turned to letter writing as a creative outlet. Emily Dickinson used her letters to push back against the constraints which women, herself included, faced during the era. Letter-writing was one of the few literary pursuits in which women were allowed to participate, and Dickinson used this to her advantage, infusing traditional letter-writing with her own artistic flair in order to develop her skills as a writer. George Howell, an amateur Victorian artist, used his letters to his brother as a space to entwine his words and his artistic works. Similarly, Beatrix Potter, an author/illustrator, often included pictures in her letters as a means of comfort and relief from the pressures she faced from her family.

Children were taught the art of letter-writing, as well; they were particularly taught to form letters neatly with instructive books filled with drawing and line instruction. One of these such books, “Elementary Drawing Copy Books,” incorporated traditional alphabet practice with instructions on drawing elements of the natural world. Aside from proper handwriting, young boys and girls were taught to compose letters for different reasons. Girls’ writing books taught them to use their writing skills for household management tasks, while those for boys taught proper form for business correspondence.