Customer Reviews

The New American Handbook of Letter Writing: Second Edition

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Rabid book-acquirer that I am, I recently added THE NEW AMERICAN HANDBOOK OF LETTER WRITING to my collection, at least partly because of its drastically reduced pricing at the recent closing of my local mall bookstore. Incidentally, the death of this particular bookstore had been long in coming. With a Borders across the street, I was not particularly alarmed or concerned at the little drama I was witnessing. The reductions began several weeks prior to the expected closing with 25% off everything in stock. In the weeks to come, I made a point of malling in its general vicinity so as to check in periodically as the store emptied and the reductions rose. Like the shark I am, I entered gleefully to participate in the final dismemberment once the magic discount of 75% was reached. So, that's the story of how I came to own this book.

I am as yet undecided whether a book on letter writing should be derided as an anachronism, or extolled as something virtuous yet woefully absent from today's bookshelves. Sadly, I believe there are far too many modern households lacking bookshelves at all or, if bookshelves are indeed present, they are more likely to hold vintage Star Wars toys (collectables?) or porcelain pig figurines rather than books. If you hold to the theory that any book is better than no book, then this book undoubtedly has some merit. However, it was not exactly what I thought it would be. I guess I was expecting a quainter book that brought back a bit of the golden age of letter writing: courting the girl next door or describing in vivid detail the most wonderful time you and Mumsy are having on the continent and just who you happened to have met on the steamship passage over. What I got, disappointingly, was a book of business form letters. Here is a sample:

"Dear Mary Daylily:

I'd like to add your name to our Professional Educator subscription list--at no cost to you--for four months! That's right, four free issues without any obligation..." well, you can imagine how that letter proceeds. Is this a guide for the aspiring form-letter marketeer or--dare I say it aloud--spammer?

You will find no discussions of style in this book. A little theory of letter writing would have been nice. You won't find that here. What you will find is a collection of sample letters, just one of each type, and the letters tend to be somewhat dry. Complaint letter? One example. Collection letter? One example. Wedding invitation? One example. Apology for a dog attack? One example.

To be fair, there is a chapter on message composition touching on word choice, conciseness, style, and other useful stuff. This makes the book almost worth its 75% markdown. Almost.

Dear Ms. DeVries:

I'm sorry to let you know that the 2nd edition book product we acquired two months ago has not met our expectations. Since your service personnel have been unable to correct the problems, we must conclude that your product was defective...

Sincerely,

Jeremy W. Forstadt

I'm not really fond of technical books, because they're usually either very dry or very judgemental. In this case, neither of those descriptions fit. My manager showed me this book, among others, to see which ones I'd like to use as a reference for our office and I read the whole book INSTEAD of browsing through it. The author writes in a conversational and intelligent tone and makes me feel like I'm having a conversation at the nearest coffeehouse instead of some lecture room with the air conditioning on too high.

If you're a terrible letter writer, or just want to improve your skills..this book is for you! Devries is one of the best technical writer's of our time. This book is fully endorsed by me!