News & Features Feedback
New This WeekAround TownMusicFilmArtTheaterNews & FeaturesFood & DrinkAstrology
  HOME
NEW THIS WEEK
EDITORS' PICKS
LISTINGS
NEWS & FEATURES
MUSIC
FILM
ART
BOOKS
THEATER
DANCE
TELEVISION
FOOD & DRINK
ARCHIVES
LETTERS
PERSONALS
CLASSIFIEDS
ADULT
ASTROLOGY
PHOENIX FORUM DOWNLOAD MP3s

  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
The write stuff
E-mail’s fine, but for a personal touch, grab a pen and write a real letter
BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN

Imagine chiseling blocks of stone to make cuneiform tablets. It took weeks of dusty effort to create the equivalent of a grocery list. Imagine pressing pulp into papyrus or harvesting octopi for ink. Days of labor must’ve been involved. Imagine sitting at a roll-top desk with a quill pen and a jar of ink. To write a letter was a morning’s work. Now think of e-mail, and the instantaneousness of your last message. Imagine how long you spent writing it, how long it took to press send. When the means of communication is momentary, writing becomes unreflective. Words lose power and weight and meaning. Slow down. Write a letter.

There’s a tingle to the thing-ness of a letter. You can hold it and smell it; it’s tangible, intimate. Infinitely more delight comes in finding a letter in your mailbox than feeling the buzz of the cell phone on your hip or the ping of a new message in your inbox. Paper, pens, ink, and a variety of other epistolary accoutrements are available in a number of Boston-area stationery stores.

For starters, let go of the mouse and grab a pen. The Quill and Ink Set ($30) at Rugg Road includes a sweeping blue feather, two nibs, ink, and a porcelain ink jar. J. Herbin glass pens (from $14.95) at Bob Slate Stationers are delicate and whimsical spirals of color. Dip the glass tips in midnight Sheaffer Ink ($4.49). Wooden yellow pencils aren’t the only writing tool Faber-Castell makes. The sleek silver smoothness of its Porsche Design ballpoint pen ($275), with its intricately braided body, poises the letter writer for robust sentiment. Montblanc made 16,500 F. Scott Fitzgerald Limited Edition ballpoint pens ($375). According to J.R. Strauss at the Montblanc store in Copley Place, there are 64 left in the United States. The white barrel and black precious resin cap with silver trim and clip give the pen (and its holder) an air of ’20s-era elegance. And the Montblanc limited edition Andrew Carnegie fountain pen ($1900 or $4600), also inspired by the Art Nouveau period, features a naked woman with silver wings draped over the cap to inspire strong and sensual letters.

Holding such glamorous writing tools, you can’t very well compose your letter on a paper towel. At Paper Source, the walls are lined with sheets of polka dots, stripes, marbled swirls, and patterns you’d see on neck ties; some sheets are thick, others gauzy ($2–$36). To give a letter even more individual appeal, you can make your own sheets with a Paper Making Set ($52.80), which includes a video, a pouch of what looks like lamb’s wool, a bag of dried flowers, and other papermaking tools. Toss some pressed petals ($4.50 for a pocket of petals) into the envelope to add a whisper of romance. Individualize your stationery with Paper Source’s array of rubber stamps. From hearts and stars ($4.75) to asparagus spears ($5.75) and ornate angels ($9.50), stamps are to paper what tattoos are to skin. Sealing wax ($5.95) from Bob Slate adds the final touch to stamping yourself on a letter.

If all the color and choices prove overwhelming, Crane & Co. Papermakers stationery proves simple and sophisticated. When your sentiments don’t involve flowers or stripes, ecru cards with a navy border ($10/set of 20) provide a classic touch. But you don’t need an artist’s sensibility or the wallet of an investment banker to engage in the epistolary art; you can get a 10-pack of Bic pens ($2.19), a Mead notebook ($2.79), and a box of 50 envelopes ($1.39) at CVS.

Where to find it:

• Bob Slate Stationers, 1288 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 547-1230.

• Crane & Co. Papermakers, Prudential Center, Boston, (617) 247-2822.

• CVS, various locations, www.cvs.com.

• Montblanc, Copley Place, 100 Huntington Avenue, Boston, (617) 267-8700.

• Paper Source, 1810 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 497-1077.

• Rugg Road, 105 Charles Street, Boston, (617) 742-0002.



Issue Date: February 20 - 27, 2003


Archive of our Urban Buys
Back to the News & Features table of contents.
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend

home | feedback | about the phoenix | find the phoenix | advertising info | privacy policy | the masthead | work for us

 © 2003 Phoenix Media Communications Group