Discover letters of note, past and present
What is Of Lost Time?
Welcome to Of Lost Time, a platform dedicated to bringing you the voices and stories hidden in the personal letters of people throughout history. What were people thinking, what were they worried or happy about, and more importantly what were they feeling? All of this can be found in historical letters, correspondence, and memoirs, some of the most private and intimate sources left to us in posterity.
The Letters for the Ages series
Get a glimpse of the intimate thoughts of history’s artists, scientists, athletes, philosophers, and public figures through Of Lost Time’s Letters for the Ages series.
Letters for the Ages is a series of eclectic anthologies, each comprised of around 100 outstanding letters written throughout human history, and united by an overarching theme. The final selection of letters – sourced through meticulously researching archive material and historical literature – is chosen by two editors; the first is an Of Lost Time in-house editor, whose job is to identify the treasure from within the masses of historical correspondence. The external advisory editor will be a top world expert who, using their intimate knowledge of the subject, weaves a fascinating narrative connecting the letters both to their wider historical context and to each other. The resulting volumes burst with the charm and quirkiness of the individuals whose words are brought to life, their stories told, often for the first time, in their own voice.
Letters for the Ages: Winston Churchill is the first anthology in this exciting new series: a volume exploring the arc of Churchill’s life through his personal correspondence and interwoven with the expert commentary of historian and direct of the Churchill Archives, Allen Packwood. Letters for the Ages: Winston Churchill will be published by Bloomsbury Continuum in early 2023.
Letters for the Ages: Behind Bars will follow shortly.
Upcoming Titles
Letters for the Ages: Sport ↗
The history of sport from the pitch to the page.
Letters for the Ages: Behind Bars ↗
What sort of messages escape through the prison bars?
Letters for the Ages: Churchill
More details to come, subscribe for the newest updates.
The Of Lost Time Blog
If you know, you know — sometimes it can be hard to make sense of historical letters without some context. Want to learn more about the who, what, when, where, and why of what past people communicated to one another?
Check out our most recent blog posts for well-researched and yet easy reads about the real, human side of history. To receive email updates, just sign up here or at the bottom of the page.
Of Lost Time is on Youtube!
Personal correspondence and letters are meant to be read, but we think that it’s important to remember these were real people by seeing and hearing them too. Our video series on Youtube features great, quirky, surprising, and insightful stories from the past, told through primary source material in a bitesize form. Subscribe and turn on notifications to see all our new videos! Here’s one we think you’ll enjoy.