Other People's Mail

An Anthology of Letter Stories

edited by

Gail Pool

To read an excerpt of each story, please click on story title.
A. A. Milne's hilarious The Rise and Fall of Mortimer Scrivens is presented here in full.

A Wilderness Station, by Alice Munro
Mystery and humor permeate this story-in-letters which revolves
around an eccentric heroine and a death in the Canadian wilderness.

Letters from the Samantha, by Mark Helprin
Letters found on board a ship depict a curious incident involving
a peculiar captain and his strange relationship with an ape.

The Death of Bed Number 12, by Ghassan Kanafani
Two letters to a friend--and a story within a story--reveal
a young Palestinian's profound sense of exile.

Evil Star, by Ray Russell
A hilarious epistolary satire, wry and dry, in which a lawyer
reviews an author's sleazy, hit-below-the-belt book for potential libel.

The Rise and Fall of Mortimer Scrivens, by A. A. Milne
English wit and comical letters fly in this tale of borrowed and beer-stained
books that gently mocks everyone involved.

Man of Letters, by Stephen Dixon
A succession of obsessive letters drafts out the absurdities
of contemporary relationships and modern love.

False Lights, by Gail Godwin
An epistolary exchange between first and second wives
illuminates relationships between men and women.

Simple Arithmetic, by Virginia Moriconi
Communications across the Atlantic reveal a family's
failure to communicate in this shrewdly knowing tale.

Quitting Smoking, by Reginald McKnight
In one long letter to a friend--a conversation with himself--a young man
articulates the painfully ambiguous position of being black in America.

Correspondence, by Donna Kline
Politicians and postal workers star in this epistolary comedy,
a warm, satirical look at American politics and mores.

Water by Torgny Lindgren
A simple bureaucratic questionnaire evokes a rich, humorous,
and deeply moving disquisition on water, children, and love.

Peter's Buddies by Michael Carson
A chain of letters encircles the world, tracking
down a friend who has mysteriously disappeared.

Back on April Eleventh, by Hubert Aquin
Obsessive passion and passionate obsession infuse
 a lover's letter in this classic French-Canadian tale.

Letter to a Young Lady in Paris, by Julio Cortazar
The inventive Latin American writer is as inventive as ever
in this tale, which is at once disarmingly fantastic and alarmingly real.

Letter from His Father, by Nadine Gordimer
Kafka's father replies--at last--to the famous "Letter
to His Father" that his famous son wrote and never sent.

A Letter from Home, by Doris Lessing
An enigmatic poet is at the center of this quirky, engaging story,
a letter that comments on life in southern Africa.

Auschwitz, Our Home (A Letter), by Tadeusz Borowski
An Auschwitz inmate bears witness to the concentration camp
experience in these penetrating, powerful letters to his lover.