Epistolography is the disappearing, almost-no-longer-existing art of writing traditional letters. People wrote them in a manner consistent with the customs of a given era, but also with the conventions in force in a given community.
Have I ever written letters to other people? I wrote some when I was a kid in the ’90s. The fact is that the great geniuses wrote letters. I read the letters of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It happened at the beginning of 2014. The whole of 2013, I spent reading Dostoyevsky’s novels translated into the Polish language. Famous Russian writer was writing letters, among others, to his wife, Anna Dostoevskaya, other writers, or to his readers. While reading his letters, I remember that I felt I read his novels, once again.
By reading famous Russian writer’s letters, I noticed that a lot of ideas stuck to his mind within many years. Today, we can still learn them both in his books and his epistolography.
After reading Dostoyevsky’s epistolography, I started to regret a little bit that I do not need to write letters to others. Nowadays, sending SMS and e-mails are much more efficient in remote communication.
At the moment, I read the letters of Paul Cezanne, which he wrote, among others, to Emile Zola.
I believe that it is too early, for me, to write something more about Cezanne’s epistolography. In turn, over 800 letters of Vincent van Gogh have survived, of which 3/4 to his brother Theo. I hope that I will be able to read the letters of the famous Dutch painter, which are also considered as works of art in themselves.
I think writing posts is a kind of dialogue, but with myself. Do I need to engage in virtual correspondence with other people? Not necessarily. I prefer conversations in the real world. I hope that thanks to writing posts, running the site, and writing “Diaries,” my thoughts will remain for posterity like epistolography of Dostoevsky’s, Cezanne’s, or van Gogh’s stayed for us.
