12 Famous love letters that are written by famous people
Get warm and fuzzy with these historically famous love letters
Dec 23, 2018
What are love letters?
Throughout man’s history, letters have been used to communicate, to reveal those inner feelings and what a better way to communicate the greatest feeling of all than on paper? A love letter is a romantic way to express those feelings that you feel are about to burst out of your chest by putting pen on paper and writing away.
Love letters are still in use today, though not so much. What with technology here to help aid that process along. But we still find ways to slip those short notes to our heart’s intended.
Famous love letters from celebrities
Celebrities are known to be swept in the love storm every now and then. Some have even gone down in history while they were swimming this current for the beautiful love letters they penned expressing their love in such beautifully written words they’ll have your heart melting.
#1. Jonny Cash’s letter to June Carter Cash
Jonny Cash and June/ House of Cash
We get old and get use to each other. We think alike. We read each others minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.
Jonny's words to his dear wife June on her 65th birthday
Shall we start with the letter that was voted the most romantic in 2015 by Beagle Street? Country singer Jonny Cash wrote a moving letter to June Carter on her birthday in 1994. They met in 1956 while Jonny was still married but this did not mean that their love was any less true. Years later, their love still a beacon for many, Cash reminded his country singer why she was the #1 earthly reason for his existence.
The #1 romantic letter Jonny wrote
#2. Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor
Richard & Taylor/sandpiper1965
These two lovebirds enjoyed quite the relationship with lots of ups and downs. A lot of letters were shared between them as well.
My blind eyes are desperately waiting for the sight of you. You don’t realize of course, E. B., how fantastically beautiful you have always been, and how strangely you have acquired an added and special and dangerous loveliness. Your breasts jutting out from that half-asleep languid lingering body, the remote eyes, the parted lips. You will never, of course, because you are too young, understand the idea of loneliness. I love you better than buckets of brine poured over a boiling body, than ice cream laved on a parched mouth, than sanity smoothed over madness ...
Letter released by Elizabeth Taylor in her memoir
#3. Zelda Fitzgerald to F Scott Fitzgerald
Zelda and F. Scott Fitgerald in 1921/Photo © Hulton Archive/Stringer
A romantic love letter from a story writer to a novelist. The letter is so full of love and passion that these two shared despite their very tumultuous relationship of mental illness, alcoholism, jealousy, and cold, cold passion.
‘Darling – I love these velvet nights. I’ve never been able to decide … whether I love you most in the eternal classic half-lights where it blends with day or in the full religious fan-fare of mid-night or perhaps in the lux of noon. Anyway, I love you most and you ’phoned me just because you phoned me tonight – I walked on those telephone wires for two hours after holding your love like a parasol to balance me.’
Part of Zelda's letter to Scott
#4. Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
Vita-Virginia love: Open Culture/steamy love letters
‘…But oh my dear, I can’t be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don’t love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I don’t really resent it.’
a response from Vita Sackville to Virginia Woolf
Their love affair began shortly after they met in the 1920s even though they were both married and the husbands knew of it. Virginia’s book- Orlando, was on her lover Vita.
#5. Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher
Portrait of Sir Victor: Documentarytube
When two souls, which for a longer or a shorter time have sought each other amidst the crowd, at length find each other; when they perceive that they belong to each other; when, in short, they comprehend their affinity, then there is established between them a union, pure and ardent as themselves, a union begun upon earth in order that it may be completed in heaven. This union is love; real and perfect love, such love as very few men can adequately conceive … It is such love as this that you inspire in me, and it is such love that you will some day assuredly feel for me, even though, to my ever-present grief, you do not do so now.
Victor Hugo letter to his wife Adele Foucher
When Victor saw the beautiful Adele, he had no choice but to write a love letter to convince her that they were two souls, meant to be. It worked because they married a year later and had five kids, although marred by infidelities.
#6. John Steinbeck to Gwendolyn Steinbeck
John Steinbeck: Biographyonline/writers
Gwen was John’s second of three divorcee wives and he loved her and hated that they were apart. He considered them one and wanted her to know that too.
Darling, you want to know what I want of you. Many things of course but chiefly these. I want you to keep this thing we have inviolate and waiting — the person who is neither I nor you but us. It’s a hard thing this separation but it is one of the millions of separations at home and many more millions here. It is one hunger in great starvation but because it is ours it overshadows all the rest, if we let it … I love you beyond words, beyond containing. Remember that always when the distance seems so great and the time so long. It will not be so long, my dear.
Famous love letters from famous historical figures in history
#7. Beethoven to ‘Immortal Beloved’
Beethoven/letters of note
‘Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, Be calm – love me – today –yesterday – what tearful longings for you – you – you – my life – my all–farewell. Oh continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.’
Immortal beloved letter written to an unknown lover discovered among Beethoven's belongings
We all know just how talented Beethoven was at creating soul-reaching music. A love letter was found in his personal belongings after his death addressed to his Immortal Beloved.
#8. John Keats to Fanny Brawne
Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton.
When love make you selfish, you go with it. This letter is so powerfully worded, it will leave you with no doubt in mind about the love Keats had for his neighbor Brawne even though it was never to be.
‘My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you – I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again – my Life seems to stop there – I see no further. You have absorb’d me…I would be martyr’d for my Religion – Love is my religion – I could die for that – I could die for you…’
#9. Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine de Beauharnais
Napoleons letter to his wife Josephine
Napoleon fell in love with the charming Josephine and even while he was away he made sure to put his love down on paper, some charming, others quite harsh but still full of love.
… In truth, my dearest, I am uneasy at having no news from you. Write me four pages filled with those nice, kind things that are such a pleasure to my heart. I hope that ere long I shall seize you in my arms, and cover you with a million burning kisses — burning as though they came from the equator.
#10. Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas
Oscar Wilde and Lord Douglas
Author Oscar Wilde met poet and Lord, Alfred Douglas, commonly known as Bosie when Bosie was just 21 and despite homosexuality being illegal at the time, it did not stop the love between these two.
‘My Own Boy, Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red-rose leaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry.’
#11. Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
Frida and Diego/
‘I ask you for violence, in the nonsense, and you, you give me grace, your light and your warmth. I’d like to paint you, but there are no colors, because there are so many, in my confusion, the tangible form of my great love.’
These two had a relationship both passionate and volatile, with a 20-year gap and a love so strong. They constantly professed love for one another in letters.
#12. Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo
Julliet and Victor Hugo/ Actualité Focus: Edition-originale.com
Juliette gave up her acting career to be with Victor after his wife’s betrayal. They went everywhere together and they fell in love as is evident in their letters.
‘If only I were a clever woman, I could describe to you my gorgeous bird, how you unite in yourself the beauties of form, plumage, and song! I would tell you that you are the greatest marvel of all ages, and I should only be speaking the simple truth…You are not only the solar spectrum with the seven luminous colors, but the sun himself, that illumines, warms, and revivifies! This is what you are, and I am the lowly woman that adores you.’
How to write love letters for him and her?
Writing the perfect love letter for the love of your life can seem like a daunting task because you are seeking the exact words that will describe exactly how you feel. Get that great emotion out of your chest in the way only written words know how.
The great thing about love letters is that they are long lasting, a physical representation of the great love you feel towards your beloved.
Here are a few tips on how to write that love letter.
1. Set a nice romantic mood
The best way to write a love letter I to be in a romantic mood yourself. Let the emotions this girl brings out in you rise to the surface and allow yourself to just get lost in them and let your mind form words on how you feel. Listen to great love ballads or read a poem or two if you need to, this will surely provide the right vocab for you.
2. Go somewhere secluded
You don’t want any distractions so a good idea is always to write your letter in your own privacy, if you’re somewhere rather public, walk a few paces from everyone else and just meditate for a few minutes. You don’t have to go right into it, compose yourself and allow the words to be formulated before you write them down.
Seclude yourself if need be
3. Start of a really romantic hello
Set off the mood of the love letter with your dearest name. Let your love know that this is a love letter- you proclaiming your undying devotion to them. If you have them smiling from the time they open the letter, you’re on your way to making a great love letter.
4. Write down the reflections of your feelings towards them
You’ve been marinating in the feeling of love for a while now so reflecting on your feelings for this person is easy. Write down the words that come with the feelings, no matter how cheesy you think they are. Love is cheesy and your partner will feel really bubbly and warm inside if they see and read just what a mess they turn you into, so don’t be afraid, dig in and write.
5. Talk about them
Talk about your love, describe them, their physical and inside and how it makes you feel. The finer the details the better. Get personal and deep. Describe their laugh, the way they do a very specific thing. Think about who they are to you- your lover, friend, confidant, best friend, soulmate- and show them how deep the connection runs. Make it sensual enough that it awakens their feelings.
6. Let the memories guide you
Throughout writing the letter keep the memories close, wrapped around your heart as you write. Write it with the conviction of a zealot, a reverent caress, whispered words of one lover to the other. Evoke the memories of how you are together, and the promise of the beautiful future you look forward to. Make the letter all about the love you feel, make them feel tethered and secure in it, even as you end it. Do not mind if it’s a few page long, express it all.
Summary
Love letters are beautiful and romantic and if you want to set a smile and keep that fire burning, this is one of the easiest ways to do it. From historical fixtures, Kings and Lords to celebrities, to common folk like you and me, love letters have been used since time immemorial and will continue to be long after. Take a moment and warm their heart with all the things you feel for them.