“I realize that stories in the press regarding my drug use may make you think that this request comes from a desire to parallel our lives. Let me assure you that this is not the case. As a fan and student of your work, I would cherish the opportunity to … Continue reading
“I don’t know very English, but I know as much as write to you…” Read an amazing letter from a 12-Year-Old Fidel Castro to just recently re-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Castro writes “My very good friend Roosevelt: I don’t know very English, but I know as much to write … Continue reading
“You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow…” When English teacher Ms. Lockwood assigned her students at Xavier High School to correspond with a well-known author … Continue reading
“While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make…” Notorious American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow–known together as Bonnie and Clyde–died on May 23, 1934 in Henry Ford’s V8-powered Model B shot by four Texas officers. Ford allegedly received … Continue reading
“I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board…” The following letter was written by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to Leó Szilárd and Albert Einstein’s letter about creating a program–what will later be known as the “Manhattan Project”–for the creation of atomic bombs in … Continue reading
“Some recent work …leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future…” The following is a letter authored predominantly by Hungarian-American physicist Leó Szilárd, but signed by Albert Einstein. It is known as the Einstein-Szilárd letter … Continue reading
“It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war…” The following is a letter from Gandhi to Adolf Hitler written on July 23, 1939 before the official beginning of World War II. It is transcribed below: Dear friend, … Continue reading
“Hemingway was here for a few days—but once you meet him you’re not likely to forget him…” During the Spanish Civil War, many foreign volunteers arrived in Spain in order to try to prevent the Spanish Republican government from falling to fascism. This is a letter from a female American … Continue reading
John Adams writes this letter to Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776, one day after the resolution of independence was approved within a closed session of the Second Continental Congress. In this letter, Adams expresses the importance of the independence they finally achieved, explaining that people are bound to remember this … Continue reading
“As I lay there listening I thought of the awfulness of it all; the birds were singing and we Human Beings were trying to kill each other.” John G. Burkhalter was a former Miami minister before becoming part of the 1st Infantry Division with the U.S. Army during the Normandy … Continue reading
