What I see in different shades of gray, from behind my reading glasses
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his daughter Frances in August 1933, about the things to worry and not worry about.
All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly.
Things to worry about: Worry about courage Worry about cleanliness Worry about efficiency Worry about horsemanship…
Steve Albini recorded Nirvana’s best-selling album In Utero over 20 years. This letter was written by Steve to the band just after their agreement on his involvement.
I would like to be paid like a plumber: I do the job and you pay me what it’s worth. The record company will expect me to ask for a point or a point and a half. If we assume three million sales, that works out to 400,000 dollars or so. There’s no fucking way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
A letter from novelist & screenwriter John D Swain to his son as he leaves home to Yale University.
I think I had never realized before that I was getting old.
Zach Rosenberg takes it public – trying to get his 4 year old to love Microsoft Excel as much as he does – that is! Hilarious!
“How to Quit Your Job Like Sherwood Anderson: The Best Resignation Letter Ever Written“
You have a man in your employ that I have thought for a long time should be fired. I refer to Sherwood Anderson. He is a fellow of a good deal of ability, but for a long time I have been convinced that his heart is not in his work.
via Brainpickings
Shaun Usher shares another wonderful letter of hope from one icon to another. A brief letter of appreciation from Jan 2000 from Oprah Winfrey to her hero Diana Ross.
Mark Twain Drafts the Ultimate Letter of Complaint (1905).
“Prepared for the Worst, and becoming more and more dissatisfied with the Best, I am already anticipating the incomparable joys of growing old.”
so ends this wonderful resume that the author Italo Calvino sent his publisher Franco Maria Ricci
[via Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings]
Another classic letter to the bosses: Bill Bernbach persuading his employers to stick to their strengths.
I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of substance, that we’re going to follow history instead of making it, that we’re going to be drowned by superficialities instead of buoyed up by solid fundamentals.