Famous Love Letters ~

"There is only one situation I can think of in which men and women make an effort to read better than they usually do. [It is] when they are in love and reading a love letter."

~ Mortimer Adler (1902 - 2001) American author, philosopher
Famous Love Letters, Messages of Intimacy and Passion
Edited by Ronald Tamplin, Reader's Digest Assoc., Inc., 1995.
"I love you no longer; on the contrary, I detest you. You are a wretch, truly perverse, truly stupid, a real Cinderella. You never write to me at all, you do not love your husband; you know the pleasure that your letters give him yet you cannot even manage to write him half a dozen lines, dashed off in a moment!"

~ Letter Napoleon to Josephine, Spring 1707.

The couple remained married until 1809 when Napoleon had the marriage annulled. (On her death, Napoleon picked violets from Josephine's grave and wore them in a locket around his neck until his death seven years later.)
Napoleon (1769 - 1821), Josephine (1763 - 1814)
~Famous Love Letters, Ronald Tamplin, 1995.
Postcard Collection courtesy of John Walker

Karen Richardson, Curator of the Haldimand County Museum, will be at The Neat Little Bookshop

Thursday, February 2 at 1:30 p.m.

Topic: Romance. Everyone welcome ~ round table discussion. Coffee pot's always on ~ (Do you have a vintage love letter that you would like to share?)

". . . a woman who loves a man would sleep on a board." ~ English novelist, D. H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)

D. H. Lawrence has been described as "not only one of the great lyric geniuses of modern literature" but an "expert on lusts, hatreds, emotions that none before dared pursue."
In a letter to his friend, John Murry, Lawrence advises, "...give her a man to be satisfied with ~ and satisfaction is never accomplished even physically unless the man is strongly and surely himself, and doesn't depend on anything but his own being to make a woman love him. You've tried to satisfy Katherine with what you could earn for her, give her: and she will only be satisfied with what you are."
"...you fool, you squander yourself, not for her, but to provide her with petty luxuries she doesn't really want. You insult her. A woman unsatisfied must have luxuries. But a woman who loves a man would sleep on a board."

~ The WORLD'S GREAT LETTERS, Simon & Schuster, 1940 Edited by M. L. Schuster.

Visit With The Author ~ Brad Smith

Author of Big Man Coming Down the Road, One-Eyed Jacks*, Busted Flush, All Hat, Rises a Moral Man and now his sixth book, Red Means Run.

Local author, Brad Smith, will be at The Neat Little Bookshop on Saturday, February 18 at 1:30 p.m. signing books.

"For such a furiously funny writer, Smith has great reserves of tenderness."
~ New York Times Book Review

"His characters are drawn with precision and sympathy, and seem as real as any in contemporary fiction."
~ Toronto Star

*One-Eyed Jacks was shortlisted for the Dashiell Hammett and Arthur Ellis Awards. Brad grew up in Canfield, Ontario. He lives in the Dunnville area.

http://www.bradsmithbooks.com/ Photo: Smith signing books at Flyers Cafe in Dunnville ~ L. B. Walker

Greeting Cards Lovingly Handmade by Angie ~

Imagine hours of sitting quietly with scissors, paper and glue. Angie Van Groningen's greeting cards are unquestionably a labour of love. Sparkles and tiny gems artistically placed amid layers of finely crafted images ~ this is the stuff that brings a smile. We have received cards meticulously sewn with golden thread. Whatever the occasion ~ new-baby congrats, anniversary, birthday and get-well wishes ~ Angie has thought of it!

Angie and her husband live in Holland most of the year. Whenever they visit Canada, which is several times a year ~ Angie comes by the bookshop with surprises of tea and a basket of her latest handmade cards. Thank you, Angie, for spreading beautiful thoughts and warm hugs.

"WHATEVER mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of others, this is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, this is my measure in iniquity."

~ Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 - July 21,1796)

Many of you may have warmed someone's heart with greeting cards from The Neat Little Bookshop. Do you know the story behind them ? That coming up tomorrow ~

"May your day be filled with fun and laughter." Some of Angie's beautiful greeting cards are blank, some deliver warm sentiments ~ ALL are "Lovingly Hand Made by Angie."