The art of letter writing might be declining in real life but our appetite for reading about letters is on the increase. This autumn sees the publication of the second in a projected 17-volume edition of Ernest Hemingway's correspondence. It covers two years from 1923-1925 – before he had even published his first novel – and reveals him on splenetic form. We listen in to some of his outpourings with Simon Garfield, whose new book charts the a history of letter-writing from its first fictional flowering in the Iliad through to the epistolary romance of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.
We also meet up with the artist Don Bachardy and find out why he has decided to publish 30 years of love letters which he exchanged with Christopher Isherwood.
Reading list
The Letters of Ernest Hemingway 1923-1925 (Cambridge University Press)
To the Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World by Simon Garfield (Canongate)
The Animals: Love Letters between Christopher Isherood and Don Bachardy (Chatto & Windus)
