The Greatest Literary Letters of All Time

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 465 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

View: Default Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
928 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1114 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1157 De Profundis Oscar Wilde 1905 British English
1726 Kafka's Other Trial Elias Canetti 1969 Bulgarian German
1812 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English
2084 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
2186 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
2190 Selections From The Tatler And The Spectator Joseph Addison, Richard Steele 1804 British English
2218 Четвёртая проза Osip Mandelstam 1930 Russian Russian
2263 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
2305 Fallen Leaves Vasily Rozanov 1913 Russian Russian
2434 Journal, 1935 44 Mihail Sebastian 1996 Romanian Romanian
2462 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
2742 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
2904 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
2904 Anti Goeze Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1778 German German
3010 The Habit of Being Flannery O'Connor 1979 American English
3256 Notebooks Albert Camus 1935 French French
3293 The Rise And Fall Of The Man Of Letters John Gross 1969 British English
3429 Letters Of A Javanese Princess Raden Adjeng Kartini 1911 Indonesian Dutch
3929 The History Of Miss Sara Burgerhart Betje Wolff, Aagje Deken 1782 Dutch Dutch
3957 The Glenn Gould Reader Glenn Gould 1984 Canadian English
4240 Letters From The Earth Mark Twain 1962 American English
4438 Night Letters Robert Dessaix 1996 Australian English
4588 Finishing The Hat Stephen Sondheim 2010 American English
4937 Pavel's Letters Monika Maron 1999 German German
5060 Letters From Egypt Florence Nightingale 1987 British English
5219 The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh 1914 Dutch Dutch
5248 Dear Theo Irving Stone, Jean Stone 1937 American English
5240 Die Günderode Bettina von Arnim 1840 German German
5606 Letters To A Young Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa 2002 Peruvian Spanish
6667 The Oxford Book Of Letters Frank Kermode, Anita Kermode 1995 British English
6691 The Collected Prose Elizabeth Bishop 1984 American English
6911 Essays of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1862 American English
7238 The Collected Works of Paul Valéry Paul Valéry 1957 French French
8691 Murasaki Shikibu Nikki ; Murasaki Shikibu Shū Murasaki Shikibu 1008 Japanese Japanese
9062 The Journals Of John Cheever John Cheever 1991 American English
9004 Hugging The Shore John Updike 1983 American English
9460 The Belles Lettres Papers Charles Simmons 1987 American English
10709 Cartas Cruzadas Darío Jaramillo 1995 Colombian Spanish
10848 Epistles Horace 20 Latin Latin
10848 Selected Prose Thomas Carlyle 1800 British English
11005 The Complete Notebooks Of Henry James Henry James 1987 American English
11159 Conversations Of Goethe With Johann Peter Eckermann Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann 1836 German German
11133 Happiness, as Such Natalia Ginzburg 1973 Italian Italian
11694 Мили бате! ... Писма на един дакел Stanka Pencheva 1971 Bulgarian Bulgarian
12823 Products Of The Perfected Civilization Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort 1969 French French
13751 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
13127 Satirical Letter Of Censure Francisco de Quevedo 1601 Spanish Spanish
13127 The Journals Of James Boswell James Boswell 1791 British English
13127 The Works Of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson 1787 British English
13127 Venetian Epigrams Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1790 German German
13127 Essays And Dialogues Giacomo Leopardi 1827 Italian Italian
13127 Imaginary Conversations Walter Savage Landor 1824 British English
13127 The Collected Writings Of Thomas De Quincey Thomas de Quincey 1889 British English
13127 Essays Of Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson 1892 Scottish English
13127 Dialogue On Poetry And Literary Aphorisms Friedrich Schlegel 1800 German German
13127 Journals Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820 American English
13127 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
13127 Essays And Reviews Edgar Allan Poe 1845 American English
13127 Studies In Classic American Literature D. H. Lawrence 1923 British English
13127 Selected Prose Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1900 Austrian German
13127 Reminiscences Of Tolstoy, Chekhov, And Andreev Maxim Gorky 1920 Russian Russian
13625 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
13625 A Johnson Reader Samuel Johnson 1964 American English
13625 The Selected Letters Of William James William James 1920 American English
13625 Holmes Laski Letters Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 1953 American English
13625 Zibaldone Giacomo Leopardi 1898 Zibaldone Italian
13625 Kilverts Diary, 1870 1879 Francis Kilvert 1938 British English
13625 Letters Of John Keats John Keats 1848 British English
13625 Epistulae Pliny the Younger 100 Roman Latin
13983 The Complete Letters Of Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde 2000 Irish English
13983 Selected Writings Paul Valéry 1950 French French
13983 A Fanatic Heart Edna O'Brien 1974 Irish English
13983 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
13983 Complete Poems And Selected Letters And Prose Hart Crane 1952 American English
13983 The Shores Of Light Edmund Wilson 1952 American English
13983 Cultural Amnesia Clive James 2007 Australian English
13983 The Lyttelton Hart Davis Letters George Lyttelton 1978 British English
13983 Collected Letters George Bernard Shaw 1972 British English
13983 The Element Of Lavishness William Maxwell 2000 American English
13983 The Writings Of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson 1903 American English
13983 Letters To His Children Theodore Roosevelt 1919 American English
13983 Poems, Essays And Letters Of Joyce Kilmer Joyce Kilmer, Robert Cortes Holliday 1918 American English
13983 The Life And Letters Of John Hay William Roscoe Thayer 1915 American English