The greatest letter-writer in English

"If I had to nominate someone as the greatest letter-writer in English--I would rather not, since the choice is so wide, but if I had to--my vote would go to John Keats," writes John Gross, a former editor of the Times Literary Supplement and the author of The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters.

His letters are superb literature in their own right. The most famous of them are closely related to his poetry. You can watch him teasing out what it means to be a poet and coming up with memorable formulations. But his intuitions go beyond art. They bear on life, too, on his vision of the world as "a vale of soul-making." And if that makes him sound unduly solemn, one should add that his insights are embedded in the soil of everyday existence. Given his illness and his early death, the letters can hardly help being ultimately tragic, but they are also remarkable for warmth, openness and spirited observation. They are cheerful as well as profound.

Gross nominates four other great letter writers from history; click here to see who he came up with.

A selection of Keats' letters is available online here.

A brief profile of Keats, available here, includes this nugget:

Keats was only just over five feet tall, and very sensitive about his stature. Upon reading a favourable review of arch-rival Lord Byron's work, he is said to have exclaimed: "You see what it is to be six foot tall and a Lord!"

--Marshal Zeringue