The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political

About the book

Anne Wintermute Lane and Louise Herrick Wall selected this correspondence to tell Franklin K. Lane's life through his own communications. Letters to family and friends sit beside reflections on public work, giving changes of tone as much importance as changes of subject. The editors explain that selection and some regularization of punctuation shaped the volume, so it should not be mistaken for an unmediated archive of every surviving letter. Lane's interest in national service provides a recurring thread, while moments of uncertainty and personal observation prevent the collection from becoming only an official record. Readers can follow how a person writes differently when requesting action, explaining a decision, or thinking aloud to someone trusted, and how those registers illuminate the pressures of public life.

• Public service
• Private correspondence
• Political judgment

Why read it

For a varied epistolary portrait that places the language of government beside the language of friendship.

English letters · selected by Anne Wintermute Lane and Louise Herrick Wall