World Letter Writing Day is a time to recall historic letters.
Some letters were written in love. Some in grief. Others at moments when the world stood on the brink of change.
Penned by presidents, revolutionaries, scientists and literary legends, these pieces of paper filled, with significant or moving words, captured emotions and ideas that went far beyond their pages.
From Gandhi's appeal to Hitler to Beethoven's mysterious note to his 'Immortal Beloved', do peruse 7 remarkable letters that found a lasting place in history.
1. Mahatma Gandhi To Adolf Hitler
On July 23, 1939, Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Adolf Hitler, calling him a 'dear friend' and appealing for peace. He said, 'You are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war'.
Gandhi wrote again on December 24, 1940, this time condemning Hitler's actions as 'monstrous'.
2. Jawaharlal Nehru To Indira Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru penned 30 letters to his 10-year-old daughter Indira during the summer of 1928. These personal lessons on history, nature and civilisation were later brought together as Letters from a Father to His Daughter, published in 1929 and make insightful reading for any youngster.
3. Albert Einstein To Franklin D Roosevelt
On August 2, 1939, physicist Leo Szilard drafted a letter to then US president Franklin D Roosevelt, which scientist Albert Einstein signed. It warned that Nazi Germany could be working on atomic bombs and urged America to begin its own nuclear programme.
4. Abraham Lincoln To Mrs Lydia Bixby
In November 1864, US president Abraham Lincoln sent a moving note to Lydia Bixby, a Boston widow believed to have lost five sons serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The brief message offered sympathy and respect for her immense loss.
5. Martin Luther King Jr: 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'
On April 16, 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr penned 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' behind bars in Alabama. The powerful open message urged citizens to confront unfair laws through peaceful protest rather than wait passively for legal change.
6. Virginia Woolf To Vita Sackville-West
Virginia Woolf's letters to her lover Vita Sackville-West offer an intimate glimpse into their deeply affectionate relationship. Filled with warmth, wit and longing, the correspondence later became celebrated for its candid expression of love between two literary figures.
7. Beethoven To His 'Immortal Beloved'
On July 6 or 7, 1812, composer Ludwig van Beethoven penned a deeply personal love letter while in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz, addressed only to his mysterious 'Immortal Beloved'. Written in pencil across 10 pages, the never-sent letter has left generations wondering about the identity of its intended recipient.
