Family

Cicero to Quintus Cicero, 58 BC

Marcus Tullius Cicero · 13 June 58 BC · Thessalonica · also Grief

Exiled from Rome and blaming himself for his brother's ruin, Cicero writes an anguished letter begging Quintus not to grieve on his account.

Cicero to Terentia, 58 BC

Marcus Tullius Cicero · 29 April 58 BC · Brundisium · also Far from home

Exiled from Rome, Cicero writes to his wife Terentia that he is too grief-stricken to write often, and asks her to look after their children and decide whether to join him.

Thomas More to Margaret Roper, 1535

Thomas More · 5 July 1535

The night before his execution, Thomas More writes a farewell letter to his daughter Margaret, sending blessings and small keepsakes to his family.

Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, 1784

Benjamin Franklin · 16 August 1784 · Passy

Franklin writes to his estranged son William, a Loyalist during the Revolution, agreeing to renew contact and sending his grandson to visit.

Jane Austen to Anna Austen, 1814

Jane Austen · 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.

Harriet Beecher Stowe to Georgiana May, 1838

Harriet Beecher Stowe · 21 June 1838

Stowe gives her friend Georgiana May a comic, exhausted account of one ordinary morning caring for her three small children.

Abraham Lincoln to John D. Johnston, 1851

Abraham Lincoln · 12 January 1851 · Springfield

Lincoln writes to his stepbrother with religious consolation for their dying father, explaining that his own affairs keep him from visiting.

Frederick Douglass to Rosetta Douglass Sprague, 1875

Frederick Douglass · 30 June 1875 · Washington, D.C.

Douglass writes to his daughter Rosetta about settling into a quieter life in Washington and worrying over his finances in old age.