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Letter-writing has long served as an important mode of interpersonal and official communication. As long ago as 3500 BC, Sumerians sent "letters" written on cuneiform tablets in clay "envelopes" (National Postal Museum).
Among literate people in Europe, letter-writing flourished in the seventeenth century, "attributed in part to the rarity of other means of information, notably newspapers" (Brown 216). The importance which letter-writing held is illustrated by the fact that "many literary men [sic] devoted a part of each day to their letters, and the abundance of their production may well astonish us: Voltaire's correspondence fills forty-five volumes" (216).
As public postal services were established, the letter-writing increased even more dramatically. As John L. Brown points out, "the possibility of having letters regularly delivered encouraged writing them" (216). Once regular postal delivery became more commonplace in the 1800's, however, the letter "lost some of its exotic glamor" and decreased somewhat in popularity (216).
Back to my discussion on letter writing