Book Description
"Immediate and evocative, letters witness and fasten
history, catching events as they happen," write Lisa
Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler in their introduction to this
remarkable book. In more than 400 letters from both famous
figures and ordinary citizens, Letters of the Century
encapsulates the people and places, events and trends that
shaped our nation during the last 100 years.
Here is Mark Twain's hilarious letter of complaint to the
head of Western Union, an ecstatic letter from a young
Charlie Chaplin upon receiving his first movie contract,
Einstein's letter to Franklin Roosevelt warning about atomic
warfare, Mark Rudd's "generation gap" letter to the
president of Columbia University during the student riots of
the 60s, and a letter from young Bill Gates imploring
hobbyists not to share software so that innovators can make
some money...
In these pages, our century's most celebrated figures
become everyday people and everyday people become part of
history. Here is a veteran's wrenching letter left at the
Vietnam Wall, a poignant correspondence between two women
trying to become mothers, a heart-breaking letter from an
AIDS sufferer telling his parents how he wants to be buried,
an indignant e-mail from a PC user to his on-line server...
"Letters," write Grunwald and Adler, "give
history a voice." Arranged chronologically by decade,
illustrated with over 100 photographs, Letters of the
Century creates an extraordinary chronicle of our
history, through the voices of the men and women who have
lived its greatest moments.
