50 Greatest Letters brings to you letters sent throughout history that have proven to be enduring\nsymbols of love, sincerity, anger or of intense historical value. The love letters by Henry VIII,\nBeethoven, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe and more impress upon us the longing\nand the desperation of these love-stricken people in the throes of desire. The innocence of children,\nsuch as Grace Bedell’s childish suggestion that ended up creating one of the most iconic American\nimages, of the young Helen Keller’s determination and optimism in trying to achieve what others\nthought was impossible, of the twelve-year-old Fidel Castro’s cheeky letter to Roosevelt asking for\nten dollars or of little Phyllis’s innocent question of whether scientists prayed to God.\nAll these and more are present in this volume to give you a flavour of the time, and the mood the\nauthors of these letters were living in. It also becomes an exercise in looking at the economy of\nwords and information that these people of the past employed, something that we in our present\nmoment can afford to learn.