One evening in 1955, Harry Truman came home to find Bess burning her letters to him. “What are you doing? Think of history,” he said. “Oh, I have,” she said and tossed in another stack. Bess Truman thought her business was hers and nobody else's, so she destroyed her half of the more than 2,600 letters she and Harry exchanged during their courtship and marriage. While making an inventory of the Truman home in the 1980s, archivists discovered 184 letters Bess had missed. Her grandson Clifton Truman Daniel shares them here, along with portions of Harry's responses, family photographs, and stories. These letters provide new insight into the lives and personalities of Bess and Harry Truman during the formative years of his political life. Despite Bess's shy and self-effacing manner, her lively correspondence offers a glimpse of a caring and witty woman who shared her concerns about family, politics, and day-to-day activities with her husband.

This correspondence, which encompasses Truman's courtship of his wife, his service in the senate, his presidency, and after, reveals not only the character of Truman's mind but also a shrewd observer's view of American politics.

Digitized collection of Truman's letters to Bess between from 1911-1957 which forms the focal point of an exhibition held at the Truman Library and Museum from February 12, 1998 through January 5, 1998. Includes digitized versions of some letters from Bess to Harry.

In this collection, published for the first time, we follow Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, two giants of the post-World War II period, as they move from an official relationship to one of candor, humor, and personal expression. In these letters, spanning the years from when both were newly out of office until Acheson's death at age 78, we find them sharing the often surprising opinions, ideas, and feelings that the strictures of their offices had previously kept them from revealing. They felt a powerful need to keep in touch as they viewed with dismay what they considered to be the Eisenhower administration's fumbling of foreign affairs and the impact of Joseph McCarthy. After Kennedy won in 1960, they discussed Acheson's reluctant involvement in the Cuban missile crisis and the Allied position in Berlin--From publisher description.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, a love letter speaks a thousand more . . . Even in this age of e-mail, faxes, and instant messaging, nothing has ever replaced the power of a love letter. Much the way light displays every color when passed through a prism, love letters express the spectrum of our emotions, offering a colorful glimpse into the soul of the writer, and of the writer's beloved. For passionate readers and lovers of words, a letter is irresistible. Internationally renowned collector David Lowenherz sifted through hundreds and hundreds of historical and contemporary epistles and selected the most ardent, witty, whimsical, sexy, clever, and touching letters for this inspiring collection. Unlike interviews or biographies, these letters give us marvelous insight into the lives of some of history's most famous lovers and provide intimate glimpses into the hearts of some whose fervent or amusing expressions of devotion will come as a great surprise. Zelda Fitzgerald to Scott Fitzgerald Michelangelo Buonarroti to Vittoria Colonna Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart toConstanze Mozart Harry Truman to Bess Wallace Khalil Gibran to Mary Haskell Benjamin Franklin to Madame Brillon Horatio Nelson to Emma Hamilton George Bush to Barbara Pierce Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn Elizabeth Barrett Browning to George Barrett Jack London to Anna Strunsky Marc Chagall to Bella Chagall Ernest Hemingway to Mary Welsh Jack Kerouac to Sebastian Sampas Alfred Dreyfus to Lucie Dreyfus Marjorie Fossa to Elvis Presley Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-West Ludwig van Beethoven to the "Immortal Beloved" Emma Goldman to Ben Reitman Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera Dylan Thomas to Caitlin Thomas Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine Bonaparte Abigail Smith to John Adams John Ruskin to Euphemia Ruskin George Sand to Gustave Flaubert Simone de Beauvoir to Nelson Algren Anais Nin to Henry Miller Voltaire to Marie Louise Denis James Thurber to Eva Prout George Bernard Shaw to Stella Campbell Sarah Bernhardt to Jean Richepin Marcel Proust to Daniel Halevy Frank Lloyd Wright to Maude Miriam Noel Anne Sexton to Philip Legler Elizabeth I to Thomas Seymour Oscar Wilde to Constance Lloyd Katherine Mansfield to John Middleton Maury Charles Parnell to Katherine O'Shea Lewis Carroll to Clara Cunnyngham

Letters Home by Harry Truman is a fascinating collection of colorful letters and "diary notes" by Truman, all compiled and edited by Monte Poen. The letters, gathered from many sources, include missives sent by Truman to his daughter, his mother and sister, his cousins, and of course his wife, Bess. This potpourri of information provides an intimate and revealing portrait of a man who went from being a farmer in dire straits -- trying to make enough money to marry the woman he loved -- to becoming the leader of the most powerful country in the free world. Book jacket.

Americans are not shy about letting politicians know what’s on their minds, and, in Harry Truman, they believed that they had a president they could level with. He even sometimes responded personally to them—especially on subjects he felt strongly about. Today, it seems remarkable that a man who described the presidency as “the most awesome job in the world” would take the time to read and respond to White House mail.Truman, however, had an unquenchable thirst for what his “everyday Americans” were thinking, yet distrusted opinion polls. For him, the daily stack of mail provided the next best poll after the voting booth. Authors Giangreco and Moore include a robust cross section of the thousands of messages sent to Truman. Juxtaposed with informative background essays, these letters provide an undiluted account of the greatest challenges confronting the U.S. during Truman’s administration, including civil rights, the Marshall Plan, the formation of Israel, the atomic bomb, the McCarthy hearings, the Korean War, and the General McArthur’s dismissal, which alone solicited more than 90,000 missives. While the majority of the letters are from private citizens, others come from correspondents, the occasional bombastic senator, and a few from the world figures.