The Letter Exchange - Links Related to Issue 5

	THE LETTER EXCHANGE
	Connecting Penfriends Since 1982

Links related to Issue 5, Autumn 2004
	The lavish book published as an adjunct to the exhibit Love Letters: Dutch Genre Paintings in the Age of Vermeer features paintings of people reading and writing letters, by Vermeer, Hals, Metsu, Huygens and many more artists, as well as extensive interpretive material.	Rubber Monger (pages 6 and 23) sells over 600 rubber stamps with original and vintage art images. Charmed by Mr. Little Guy (page 8)? You're not the only one. CNN did a story; so did CBS (see the video that the CBS article is taken from, including an interview with the elf; if your system doesn't play this clip automatically, right-click and choose Properties, then copy the Address into Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or a similar viewer). Locally the little guy is more often referred to as the Lake Harriet Elf. Individuals like to write about him in their blog , geocache, or journal (this last includes Mr. Little Guy's address – he moves to a castle during Minnesota's deep-snow winters). The elf door is a popular subject for both stock and local photographers; the tree is a surprisingly small one. Fascinated with Lewis Carroll (page 10)? You might want to check out the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, the Lewis Carroll pages at The Victorian Web, or the British Lewis Carroll Society. You can also make your head swim with the Gutenberg edition of Carroll's The Game of Logic. The exhibition of Dutch paintings with letter writing themes (page 11) was at the National Gallery of Ireland, whose press releases focused on both the paintings and the theme of letter writing, as did other notices of the show. Reviews also explored the meaning of letters in the 17th century. Some of the paintings mentioned in the press release in Issue 5 but not illustrated there include those by de Hooch, Steen, and Brekelenkam. The Open Source Project lists several dozen organizations involved in writing to prisoners (see page 15), ranging from Christian ministries to dating services. Jean Puget de la Serre's Le Secretaire a la Mode (see page 12) was a popular letter-writing manual in the 17th century. As firmly ensconced in the American cultural consciousness as the Pony Express (page 20) is, it's hard to believe that it only operated for a year and a half. The National Park Service has established a Pony Express National Historic Trail spanning eight states. David Roelands' early 17th century book of writing technique (see page 27 for a sample page) commands high prices at auctions; the book includes many elaborate drawings, including a calligraphic elephant. The article about the prison penpal scam mentioned on page 29 can be found here.
	Described as "A punk rock vision quest told in the tradition of the anarchist travel story", Off the Map started out as a personal zine and is now a 146-page book.
	Charles Dodgson, who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll, is best known as the author of Alice in Wonderland, but he also carried on a voluminous correspondence, particularly with children, and was a well-known writer on logic, puzzles and mathematics.
	The Pony Express is probably the most famous of the ways that mail has been delivered in U.S. history. The legend continues to inspire fictional stories as well as historical accounts.
	Ovid's Heroides is a collection of letters in verse from mythological women of the past to their absent husbands and lovers.
Clicking on the links in this column will take you to Powell's, the world's largest independent bookstore. Any purchase you make by following one of these links will help support LEX – not just these items but any book or DVD in their inventory.		Back to Issue-Related Links
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