The Letter-Writer's Desk

The letters in the attic are how we know our ancestors. The letters we write now will be how our families know us. Each issue, this page offers a few prompts to get the pen moving, and a short column of gifts for letter writers.

This issue's letter prompts

1. The Kitchen You Grew Up In. Describe it to a grandchild: the table, the smell on a Sunday, who sat where, and the dish nobody else could make.
2. A Thank-You That Is Years Late. Write to someone who helped you long ago: a teacher, a neighbor, a first employer. Say what they did and what came of it.
3. To the Ancestor You Are Searching For. Tell them what you have found so far, what you still do not know, and the question you would ask first.
4. The Recipe Card. Copy out a family recipe by hand and write, on the back, whose it was and when it was made.
5. A Letter to Open in Ten Years. Write to your own family a decade from now: what the house looks like, what things cost, what you hope for them.
6. The Photograph Without a Name. Send a copy of an unnamed family photograph to a cousin, with every clue you have, and ask what they remember.

The gift column: for the letter writer

Note: This column recommends kinds of things, not particular products, and contains no affiliate links. If that ever changes, every affiliate link will be clearly labeled.

Good Paper

Heavier paper takes fountain-pen ink without bleeding through. A boxed set of writing paper with matching envelopes is a gift that gets used.

A First Fountain Pen

A simple pen that takes bottled ink or cartridges is enough to start. Add a bottle of ink in a dark, readable color.

Sealing Wax & a Seal

A stick of sealing wax and a brass seal with an initial make an ordinary envelope feel like an occasion. Ask at the post office before mailing a lumpy envelope; it may need extra postage.

A Letter Box

A plain box to keep the letters you receive. The letters of today are the family papers of tomorrow.

Share a letter

Write a letter from one of the prompts, or share an old family letter you own. See Reader Submissions.