The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Have you ever thought about what having an address means? Or not having it? When most people, and especially mail lovers, think about street addresses, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail.

 
The Address Book takes this apparently banal topic and makes you aware of how big it is. Addresses were not invented to help you find your way: they were created to find you. And believe it or not, they reveal more than you think about you. There are complex and fascinating stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who does not, and why.

#AtoZChallenge | V is for Vintage

75 To Margarita in Paris, November 1903:
"Manolo passed his exams very well and today it is
Aberto's turn. A tender kiss, your Mamilla"

Dearest Margarita: An Edwardian Love Story in Postcards is both a book and a box containing a collection of 100 postcards. It tells the story of a forbidden love affair between Margarita Johnson (a wealthy young Cuban girl, born in 1880) and Charles Lumb. They were forced by circumstances to conduct their romance in secret, across continents. I have received some postcards of this collection, from Laura (the UK).

At the time of this love affair, 1900-1906, a craze for postcards was sweeping through Europe. It became the fashion to send and receive cards from friends -in most places there were three postal services a day. The law at the time prevented the sender from writing a message on the address side, so phrases were inserted around the picture side of the card. Cards were often kept in elaborate personalised albums and this was where Margarita kept hers. Over the six-year period the cards came in from family, friends and Charles, who wrote from America, England and Europe - wherever he was on his travels.

92 Bathers at Dieppe. 'Anticipating the pleasure of the coming
month. Yours ever, C.' June 1905

54 Napoleon, a card from Raul von Schroeder,
July 1903.

Can you imagine that someone, in the future, would do that with your love story?

The Jolly Postcards

Some postcards from the wonderful book The Jolly Postman, sent by Bryon (the USA).

Snail Mail, by Michelle Mackintosh

I bought Snail Mail, by Michelle Mackintosh, due to this post in Rose Tinted Crafting. Hannah wrote a long review and posted some pictures of the book, so I refer you to her post.

I just want to add that the book is a pleasure to see. Even if I had already tried most of her ideas, I found some inspiration. And it could be really a good gift for people who does not know how to start in the world of the creative mail.

Wish You Were Here

Wish you were here, by Emily Martin

“Consists of 21 envelopes and 57 postcards commemorating the artist’s trip to Wales and mailed to Iowa City, Iowa. The postcards, numbered sequentially from 1 to 57, are distributed in groups of 3 in the envelopes, each set forming one continuous communication. Each envelope also contains some memento from the trip, e.g., an airline boarding pass, a hotel receipt, a parking ticket, etc. Postmarked chiefly from Cardiff, Wales, the envelopes are joined to each other by interlocking loops cut from their ends and hinged together by a series of red and yellow pencils”.

Taken from here.

Little Red Riding Hood Variations

Another whimsical illustration from The Jolly Postman book sent by Bryon (the USA). And this one is showing a favourite character of fairy tales. Well, her granny. Well, not exactly.

But this Little Red Riding Hood is not the only who has landed on my mailbox lately. I have got two more versions:

Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). This little girl lives in Efteling.

Ângela (Portugal) drew this sweet mail carrier on her latest envelope. How cool is it?

Daddy Long-Legs

Don't you love this postcard? It was sent by Laura (the UK).

This sweet illustration is the cover of the epistolary novel Daddy Long-Legs (Be careful! The page in English of the Wikipedia contains a spoiler), by the American writer Jean Webster. The protagonist is a young girl who lives in an old-fashioned orphanage, and writes letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen.

The novel was written in 1912. I read it as a teenager. I loved it at that time, but I don't remember exactly the details. In fact, I had forgotten about it until I received this postcard.

The funny fact about the postcard is that it arrived without stamps! (And the sender don't remember whether she stuck them).

The Jolly Postman

Postcard sent by Bryon (the USA). I wrote about this book long time ago, and I was more than happy to receive this postcard!

The Jolly Postman (1986) by Janet and Allan Ahlberg is a very special interactive book. The plot: a mail carrier delivers letters by bicycle to several famous fairy tales characters. Twelve of the pages have been made into six envelopes. They contain the real letters and cards that may be removed from their envelope page and read separately.

There are two sequels: The Jolly Christmas Postman (1991) and The Pocket Jolly Postman (1995). I have read only the first. Actually, I do not own the book myself: I have bought more than once, but I always finish to offer it as a gift.

Malerwinkelhaus Catalogue

When I participated in Malerwinkelhaus mail art call, I didn't expect to receive this wonderful documentation of the project.

But some months letters, it was really a surprise to receive by mail the advertising card and this wonderful catalogue! Of course I immediately browsed its pages looking for my contributions:

Can I say this is the coolest mail art call I have participated in?

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

This novel was recommended by John with these clever words (reproduced without his permission):

It's part romance, part mystery and part something else (I can't tell you what exactly because that might spoil the ending...)

I really enjoyed it! I think the title is enough to catch the eye of mail lovers. However, the original French is Le facteur émotif. And in English it was first published as Postman's Round. 

Envelope Poems

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet. She lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. Most of her friendship was therefore carried out by correspondence.

After her death, Lavinia (Dickinson's younger sister) kept her promise and burned most of the poet's correspondence. Luckily, she had left no instructions about her 40 notebooks filled with poems. So most of Dickinson's work was published posthumously.

In the mid-1990s, while examining Dickinson material, the literary historian Marta L. Werner came across a small collage cut from recycled envelopes and covered with Dickinson's handwriting. After a search for similar items, she found dozens of semi-intact envelopes, fragments and scraps that showed sentences or entire poems pencil-written by Dickinson. So a good way to reuse the plain envelopes we get!

All the 52 envelope poems have been gathered into a book: Emily Dickinson: The Gorgous Nothings, published by New Directions and Christine Burgin.

More information in this article.

Il Club di Giulietta

An early 14th-century house at Via Cappello no. 23, in Verona
claiming to be the Capulets', filled with love letters.

Since the 1930s, letters addressed to Shakespeare's heroine Juliet keep arriving in Verona. More than 5000 letters are received annually, three quarters of which are from women (and mostly American teenagers). The letters are read and replied by local volunteers organized since the 1980 in the Club di Giulietta (Juliet Club), financed by the City of Verona. 

It is also a tradition to put small love letters on the walls (which is done by the thousands each year), which are regularly taken down by employees to keep the courtyard clean.

The amount of letters has been increased after the release of the American film Letters to Juliet on May 14, 2010. The idea for the film was inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book published by Lise Friedman and Ceil Friedman, which chronicles the phenomenon of letter writing to Shakespeare's most famous romantic heroine.

(More information in this article and in the Wikipedia).

More Than Words

Yves Saint-Laurent
to Alexander Liberman
c. 1970 June 7

More Than Words is a collection of illustrated letters (from the early nineteenth century through the 1980s) exhibited in the Archives of American Art's New York Reseach Center in 2007. 

But you can still see some of the letters on this site, buy the book (More Than Words: Illustrated Letters From the Smithsonian's Archive of American Art, by Liza Kirwin) and, especially, get some inspiration...

Love, Stargirl

«Dear Leo,

I love beginnings. If I were in charge of calendars, every day would be January 1.
And what better way to celebrate this New Year's Day than to begin writing a letter [...]»

Jerry Spinelli, Love, Stargirl

Cats Go Postal

I have not read this book, but the title caught my attention. Because I had heard about mail delivered by pigeons, horses... even dogs, camels and reindeer! But cats??

I thought, at first, it was just a children's books. And it is, but inspired in a true event. In the late nineteenth century, some people of Liège (Belgium) decided to free some cats in the countryside, far away from the city. In less than 24 hours all the felines were at home, claiming for being fed. So they deduced (?) they would train 37 cats in order to deliver mail.

As you can imagine, the the experiment did not turn as expected: the cats suffered from lack of discipline and interest.

Walking with the Mailman

At any rate, I feel pretty confident that we mailmen experience a lot of things that most people just don't have the luxury of experience.

Walking with the mailman by Austin Brown couldn't have a better title. Literally, through the different chapter you are walking with the author dealing with dogs, kids, your supervisor, the weather, the elderly people...

It isn't a novel, but a collection of anecdotes. Most of the stories are funny and related with sense of humour. And readers can learn how the postal service works in the United States.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel written by the American author Stephen Chbosky. I read in in the Spanish version because a friend gave it to me as Christmas present. But the fact is that I had not thought of it as a mail book until I saw the title in a list of Books related to mail.

This blog is actually about mail and not about books. All I am going to say is that this book is delicious! The kind of book that tells a lot of sad things but makes you happy anyway. 

By the way: it arrived by snail mail.

(Here more serious comments; but don't blame me if you find some spoilers...). 

Postal Reading Challenge

The Postal Reading Challenge 2014 is hosted by The Indextrious Reader's blog.

It consists in read and review books with a postal theme (non-fiction on the subject of letter writing, collections of real letters, or epistolary fiction of any era). You review each one and link back to the challenge. You can sign up any time throughout 2104.
More details here and here the links related to the project.

Even if you don't sign up, you can discover a lot of interesting books!

Snail Mail My Email

Update

Please, see the comments below this post. It contents first-hand information about how the project worked.

-------------------------------

Snail Mail my Email is a collaborative art project where volunteers handwrite stranger's emails and sent physical letters to the intended recipients, free of charge.

The project was created in 2011 by artist Ivan Cash, during which 234 volunteers collectively sent 10,457 letters to 70 countries. Those letters inspired the book Snail Mail My Email.

So far, a total of 431 volunteers have artistically interpreted and collectively sent 13,968 letters across the world.

To know more, visit the website of the project.

The Englishman Who Posted Himself

The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects tells the story of a English middle-class man named W. Reginald Bray in the late 19th century. His lifelong passion was sending unusual items through the mail, in order to test the limits of postal regulations.

He wondered, for instance, if a postcard clearly and legibly addressed but in mirror writing would be delivered (yes, it was). He asked the help of his mother to crochet an envelope with a needlework address (it was delivered as well). He sent a bunch of onions with an address tag. And so on. I guess the word TTPO (which stands for Torture the Post Office) was born in Reginald's town...

Bray was interested that living beings could be mailed. He successfully mailed his dog (?!) and, the ultimate of his experiments was mailing himself (??!!). He did this three times: in 1900, as ordinary mail. In 1903 he re-mailed himself using registered mail and was dutifully delivered to his father. In 1932 he mailed himself by the third time, and he got the nickname The Human Letter.

The author of the book is a philatelist who chanced upon some postcards Bray had sent out, and wanted to find out more. It was hard to find and gather part of Bray's collection, as his family sold out the complete archive after his dead. What a pity!

The book is crammed with some beautiful illustrations of Bray's postal experiments.