Making something

Leonardo da Vinci to Ludovico Sforza, c. 1482

Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1482

Leonardo da Vinci drafts a job-application letter to Ludovico Sforza, listing his skills as a military engineer before mentioning, almost as an afterthought, that he also paints and sculpts.

John Keats to George and Tom Keats, 1817

John Keats · 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.

Franz Liszt to Pierre Wolff, 1832

Franz Liszt · 2 and 8 May 1832 · Paris

After hearing Paganini perform, Liszt describes a fortnight of feverish self-study and the near-delirious ambition driving him to become a great artist.

Charlotte Brontë to William Smith Williams, 1848

Charlotte Brontë · 3 April 1848

Writing under her pen name, Currer Bell, Charlotte Brontë tells her publisher's reader that a hostile review of Jane Eyre has left her more encouraged than hurt.

Ralph Waldo Emerson to Walt Whitman, 1855

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 21 July 1855 · Concord, Massachusetts

After reading the unsigned first edition of Leaves of Grass, Emerson writes an unsolicited fan letter to its unknown author, Walt Whitman.

George Eliot to John Blackwood, 1859

George Eliot · 24 February 1859

Anxious for reassurance about Adam Bede's reception, George Eliot thanks her publisher for reports of praise and admits how much she needs encouragement.