The Humanym archive
Letters
Real letters from history, one per episode of The Art of Being Human — read them as they were written, then hear them discussed.
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Ep. 1
Jane Austen to Anna Austen, 1814
9–18 September 1814 · Chawton, Hampshire
Austen reads her niece's novel-in-progress and answers with pages of exact, affectionate criticism — including the line about three or four families in a country village.
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Ep. 2
Charles Darwin to Asa Gray, 1860
22 May 1860 · Down, Kent
Six months after the Origin, Darwin tells his closest American ally exactly where they disagree about design and Providence — and admits he is bewildered.
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Ep. 3
John Keats to George and Tom Keats, 1817
21–27 December 1817 · Hampstead
The letter in which Keats, writing home about plays and dinner parties, arrives at 'Negative Capability' — being in uncertainties without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.
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Ep. 4
Abraham Lincoln to Fanny McCullough, 1862
23 December 1862 · Washington, D.C.
In the middle of the Civil War, Lincoln writes to the grieving daughter of a friend killed in action: 'You are sure to be happy again.'
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Ep. 5
Michael Faraday to John Tyndall, 1855
6 October 1855 · Sydenham
After a bruising scientific meeting, the elder Faraday advises the younger Tyndall to be 'a little dull of apprehension' where a slight seems meant, and quick to see good will.
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Ep. 6
Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman, 1868
29 August 1868 · Rochester, New York
Asked for a word of commendation, Douglass measures the difference between his public fame and Tubman's unwitnessed work: 'I have wrought in the day — you in the night.'