Friendship

Seneca to Lucilius, c. 65 AD

Seneca · c. 65 AD

Seneca answers his friend Lucilius's question about whether a truly wise person, being self-sufficient, has any need of friends.

Michelangelo to Giorgio Vasari, 1556

Michelangelo Buonarroti · 23 February 1556 · Rome · also Grief

Michelangelo, in his eighties, tells Vasari that the death of his devoted servant Urbino, after twenty-six years, has taught him how to face his own death.

Alexander Pope to Jonathan Swift, 1737

Alexander Pope · 23 March 1737

Pope, growing old himself, asks his old friend Jonathan Swift to leave Ireland and come live near him in England for their remaining years.

Charles Lamb to Thomas Manning, 1815

Charles Lamb · 25 December 1815 · also Far from home

Lamb pretends that years have passed and that everyone Manning knew has died, as an elaborate joke to coax his friend home from China.

Ludwig van Beethoven to Franz Wegeler, 1826

Ludwig van Beethoven · 7 October 1826

Confined to bed, Beethoven writes with warmth to Franz Wegeler, the friend of his youth, recalling old kindnesses and reporting his recent honors.

Michael Faraday to John Tyndall, 1855

Michael Faraday · 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.

Emily Dickinson to Samuel and Mary Bowles, 1858

Emily Dickinson · c. 1858

Dickinson writes two short notes to her friend Samuel Bowles and his wife, thanking them for a gift and declaring that friends are the only wealth she wants.

George Sand to Gustave Flaubert, 1866

George Sand · 28 September 1866 · Nohant

Sand happily agrees to visit Flaubert at Croisset and teases him about growing older together as friends.

Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman, 1868

Frederick Douglass · 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.'