Love Letters

Reading many of the My Dear Bessie letters was a very engaging activity this past week. To my surprise, as well, it was quite a thought provoking one. For the most part, I found Chris Barker and Bessie Moore’s conversational letter writing styles to be entertaining and sweet. I loved how thorough their responses were, addressing every detail the other mentioned in their letter. Chris’ letters, as well, were especially beautiful. His were almost poetic. One of my favorite lines from him reads, “[My love for you] is a fever that I have. It is irrational, nonsensical.” Comparing his love to a fever was striking. It even left me smiling slightly. Reading the letters, though entertaining, made me feel guilty almost. They begin to write very explicitly about the other and I couldn’t help but feel I was intruding. These were very personal letters, so I felt strange being allowed to read through and analyze them. It made me wonder, do archivists(or anyone who’s profession involves letter analyzing) ever feel guilty about reading through real people’s private letters? After reading My Dear Bessie letters, I began to really understand Martha Washington’s motivation for burning her letters from George Washington, wanting to keep their relationship private.