Bartleby the Scrivenor

Ian Jackson of Berkeley, CA, has collected and privately published limited edition compilations of historical quotes on a variety of letter writing topics under the title The Imperfect Correspondent in Historical Perspective. The collection first started with the subject of the tardy response to a letter. “I do not always answer letters promptly,” he said, “so I began 20 or 30 years ago to collect excuses for late replies.” With the collector’s zeal, The Imperfect Correspondent includes letters written in French, Italian, Spanish and English, ranging from as early as the 16th century to the early…