Long ago, the practice of writing letters was a well developed activity.  Before the telephone and way before the internet, people had to actually sit down, take a pen or quill to hand, and write their thoughts down.  Many Literary figures were also known as "Men of Letters" because of the quality of their correspondence.

These were not letter about the last vacation or inquiring about the kids or weather.  These were letters discussing the important events and philosophies of the day.  The framers of the U.S. Constitution, for example, wrote voluminously to explain their rationales and concerns (so anyone who says we cannot know what they were actually thinking has simply not done their research).

Now I make no pretense of being or even aspiring to belonging in their company.  Nevertheless, I do have some excellent friends of high intellect and now and then I've been drawn into correspondence (these days mostly via email) discussing things that are important to me and sometimes of importance on a much grander scale.

It occurred to me that instead of trashing the emails when my mailbox fills up, there were some that ought to be saved because they discuss things of interest and could, perhaps, spark some discussion even on a broader scale.  Sometimes I have kept the name of my correspondent anonymous, at others I may identify them if I have their permission. 

I have arranged the correspondence by topic in the cells bellow.  Click on a cell to go to that letter or letter/topic chain.