It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. All the other kids picked countries like France or Germany, but when Caitlin saw Zimbabwe written on the board, it sounded like the most exotic place she had ever heard of -- so she chose it. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen pal letter. There were only ten letters, and forty kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got...

In The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume 1, 1940-1956, we discover the art of Plath's correspondence. Most of these materials have never before been published, and are presented here unabridged and without revision -- so that she can speak directly in her own words. Refreshingly candid and offering intimate details of her personal life, Plath's letters entertain a wide ranges of addressees, including family, friends, and professional contacts, with inimitable...

"To see if nonviolence could be taught, in 1982 Colman McCarthy became a volunteer teacher at one of the poorest high schools in Washington, DC. In the thirty-two years since then, he has taught peace studies courses for more than ten thousand college and high school students. Large numbers of those students have faithfully kept in touch with McCarthy, often with handwritten letters, and he has answered them with the same seriousness he brought to...