For as long as people could write , it seems , the more quixotic and less self - conscious among us have been indite love letters . But in the era of ephemeral digital communication , the visceral pleasure of a handwritten love letter is largely lost . What school - age kid can evenread cursiveanymore ?
ThisValentine ’s Day , take a bit of divine guidance from these few famous love varsity letter and pen your sweetie a love letter . you may even bring a “ Do you wish me ? Check yes or no ” if you ’re feeling self - conscious about it .
Abelard and Héloïse: Love Letters Spell Trouble
Tales of thwarted love beguile the human imagination like nothing else , so it ’s not surprising that the early 12th century account of Pierre Abelard and Héloïse has endured for generation .
Abelard was in his early thirties and one of the most promisingphilosophersand teachers in medieval Paris ; new Héloïse was the canny and academic live - in niece of a respected clergyman , Canon Fulbert . claim the upkeep of a home and the commute to Paris was too onerous , Abelard invoke to Fulbert : In exchange for elbow room and control board , he ’d tutor undimmed Héloïse . Some take that Abelard knew exactly what he was doing by securing a room with the canon , but whether it was fate or the crafty work of a besotted suitor , it worked . Abelard and Héloïse before long fell in beloved and , after a brief period of time of intense “ report ” sessions , Héloïse became significant . They married in mystery and for a forgetful time , it looked like things were going to twist out all right for the duet . But that would n’t make it a tragedy : With wounded pride and a vengeful heart , Canon Fulbert charter some men to incur Abelard and castrate him .
With Abelard maimed and her tike entrust to the care of her class , Héloïse was give little choice but to take the vows ; she later became abbess of her abbey , while Abelard ’s career as a philosopher progress .
Abelard seems to have turn away from sensual love after the incident , but Héloïse continued to decant her wild-eyed love for him into letters :
“ But if I suffer you , what is left to hope for ? What reason for stay on on the pilgrimage of life history , for which I have no support but you and none in you except the knowledge that you are alive , now that I am proscribe all other pleasures in you and denied even the joyfulness of your presence which from time to time could restore me to myself ? ”
In the more than 800 eld since their death , their story , now the stuff of paintings and poetry , has cemented their stead in the pantheon of great lovers . Their letters also remain — although there is some scholarly disputation as to whether the two even write them . The literal doubt is , as the couple has already happen into legend , does it matter ?
Ludwig van Beethoven: Love Letters to a Mystery Woman
ThoughLudwig van Beethovennever married , he light in erotic love deeply and often , commonly with women who were unattainable due to societal mores or because they were already tie . The composer wrote a act of love letters , but three brook out — the “ Immortal Beloved ” alphabetic character .
In the first , dated the sunrise of Monday , July 6 , Beethoven writes , “ Love demand everything and is quite right , so it is for me with you , for you with me . ” In the second , dated that eventide , he “ weeps ” at the thought that the mail only goes out on Monday and Thursdays early on in the morning — because he has already missed the first , his dear wo n’t receive Book from him until Saturday .
The next day , he compose , “ I can only survive , either altogether with you or not all . Your love made me the happy and the unhappy at the same time . ” He ends the last letter :
“ Oh , go on loving me — never doubt the faithfullest heartOf your belovedLEver thine . Ever mine . Ever ours . ”
attempt to once and for all check the identity of his “ Immortal Beloved ” have loosely come to naught , although some say the most probable candidate is Antonie Bretano , a Viennese woman who , true to Beethoven ’s form , was already married to a Frankfurt merchant . Others say she was Josephine von Brunsvik , an sadly marital Hungarian aristocrat who ’d constitute an fond regard to Beethoven some years to begin with . Still others claim it was the Countess Julia Guicciardi , to whom he ’d dedicated his gorgeous “ Moonlight Sonata . ”
But no one believes the version put forrad by Hollywood director Bernard Rose , in his 1994 Beethoven biopic starring Gary Oldman and Isabella Rossellini : That the Immortal Beloved was actually Johanna Reiss , the wife of Beethoven ’s brother and a woman who , outside the make - believe world , Beethoven actually hate .
Charles Darwin: The Evolution of Love
When most people consider ofCharles Darwin , they do n’t usually thinkromance — the author ofOn the Origin of the Speciesis far more well make out for his theory ofevolutionthan for his reputation as a buff .
It ’s true that Darwin was n’t just sentimental . In 1838 , seven years after his momentous ocean trip around Tierra del Fuego on theBeagle — a trip that plant the source of what would become his lord work — the scientist decided he ’d care to get hook up with .
Darwin came to this decision after drawing up a list of pros and cons . Undermarry , he wrote , “ constant familiar ” and “ better than a dog anyhow . ” Undernot marry , he spell , “ conversation with cunning men at clubs . ”
finally , the pros outweighed the cons and he became engaged to his first cousin , Emma Wedgwood .
His love letters are n’t silly , but they do contemplate his honest making love for Emma and the genuine excitement he felt at his impending nuptials . “ How I do desire you shall be glad as I know I shall be , ” he wrote , just day before their marriage ceremony . “ My own dearest Emma , I earnestly beg , you may never regret the bully , and I will add very good , deed you are to perform on the Tuesday : my own dear succeeding married woman , God bless you ! ”
The couple had 10 child together and for the most part , their marriage was quite glad ; even so , Emma , a devout Christian , worried desperately about what effect Darwin ’s scientific theories would have on his immortal mortal and the souls of multitude who fit in with him .
Presidential Love Letters
Woodrow Wilsonwas the twenty-eighth president of the United States and the man who led America through the First World War ( though historians havereevaluated his reputationin recent eld ) . He was also a fertile making love alphabetic character writer .
While woo Edith Bolling , Wilson penned a series of sexual love letter , some signed “ Tiger ” ( Wilson was a Princeton alum , but this was before the university deal on the Panthera tigris as its mascot . ) In one , Wilson write , “ You are more wonderful and lovely in my eye than you ever were before ; and my pride and joy and gratitude that you should love me with such a perfect dearest are beyond all expression , except in some great poem which I can not compose . ” In another , he pine tree , “ Please go to ride with us this eventide , treasured little girl , so that I can whisper something in your ear — something of my felicity and honey , and accept this , in the meantime , as a piece out of my very pump , which is all yours but can not be sent as I wish to institutionalise it by letter . ”
Wilson sure as shooting is n’t the only American president to turn a bit mushy with a playpen — or feathering quill — in hand . In PresidentHarry Truman ’s letter to Bess Wallace before they were married , he save , “ I suppose that I am too crazy about you anyway . Every clock time I see you I get more so if it is potential . I get it on I have n’t any correct to but there are certain things that ca n’t be help and that is one of them . I would n’t help it if I could you eff . ”
PresidentRonald Reaganwrote toNancy Reaganafter 31 years of marriage , “ I more than love you , I ’m not whole without you . You are life-time itself to me . When you are gone I ’m waiting for you to yield so I can startle living again . ” Their symmetry was print in the 2002 bookI Love You , Ronnie : The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan .
Of naturally , some of the most noted presidential dear varsity letter were betweenJohn Adamsand his married woman , Abigail . While debating public policy and the direction ofAmerican independency , the two exchanged sweet , affectionate , silly , and often deeply affecting endearment . “ Dear Miss Saucy , ” he writes , “ I hereby order you to give me as many kisses and as many hours of your troupe as I shall please to demand , and appoint them to my account . ”
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A version of this story was published in 2010 ; it has been updated for 2025 .
