I write this openly because I feel that with you one must be open.

Most...no, all of my dearest friends live in other parts of the country.  Some even countries away! While telephones chats are nice, and texting is good to keep in contact on a day-to-day basis, my favorite way of communicating with them is through letters. There's nothing that brightens my day more than the mailman delivering an envelope enclosing a personalized message just for me. The actual physical nature of letter writing is special in itself. The content of what goes into a letter is different than an email also. Letters are written knowing there's time and space differences, emails are immediate, you could get a response in minutes! The dialogue is prolonged, you have to make whatever you want to say more relevant over longer times...if that makes sense. There are other differences too... Writing a good letter takes time and care! 

I randomly found this letter to Walt Whitman from Bram Stoker--the Irish writer of Dracula:
(The rest of the letters are here ) 









Dublin, Feb. 14, 1876.
        My dear Mr. Whitman.

     I hope you will not consider this letter from an utter stranger a liberty. Indeed, I hardly feel a stranger to you, nor is this the first letter that I have written to you. My friend Edward Dowden has told me often that you like new acquaintances or I should rather say friends. And as an old friend I send you an enclosure which may interest you. Four years ago I wrote the enclosed draft of a letter which I intended to copy out and send to you—it has lain in my desk since then—when I heard that you were addressed as Mr. Whitman. It speaks for itself and needs no comment. It is as truly what I wanted to say as that light is light. The four years which have elapsed have made me love your work fourfold, and I can truly say that I have ever spoken as your friend. You know what hostile criticism your work sometimes evokes here, and I wage a perpetual war with many friends on your behalf. But I am glad to say that I have been the means of making your work known to many who were scoffers at first. The years which have passed have not been uneventful to me, and I have felt and thought and suffered much in them, and I can truly say that from you I have had much pleasure and much consolation—and I do believe that your open earnest speech has not been thrown away on me or that my life and thought fail to be marked with its impress. I write this openly because I feel that with you one must be open. We have just had tonight a hot debate on your genius at the Fortnightly Club in which I had the privilege of putting forward my views—I think with success. Do not think me cheeky for writing this. I only hope we may sometime meet and I shall be able perhaps to say what I cannot write. Dowden promised to get me a copy of your new edition and I hope that for any other work which you may have you will let me always be an early subscriber. I am sorry that you're not strong. Many of us are hoping to see you in Ireland. We had arranged to have a meeting for you. I do not know if you like getting letters. If you do I shall only be too happy to send you news of how thought goes among the men I know. With truest wishes for your health and happiness believe me

Your friend

Bram Stoker.