The Letterbox

Five letters, read aloud, so you can hear the form before you bring your own. Same voice every night, close to the mic.

1. The sign-on (~25 seconds). Where this letterbox comes from.

2. Lincoln's unsent letter to General Meade, July 1863 (~80 seconds). He wrote it in distress, never signed it, never sent it. The envelope reads: “To Gen. Meade, never sent, or signed.”

3. Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament, October 1802 (~89 seconds). Sealed and never sent, with three blank spots where his brothers' names should have been.

4. Kafka's Letter to His Father, November 1919 (~82 seconds). Forty-five typed pages, handed to his mother to deliver. She read it and gave it back. His father never read it.

5. Beethoven's Immortal Beloved letter, July 1812 (~71 seconds). Pencil, ten small pages, no address, no envelope. Found among his papers after he died. Nobody ever established who she was.

If one of these is where your letter should land, write to [email protected] and tell me how it starts. Still deciding? Send the first line you never said, and I'll say it back to you once, recorded, free (first five, one each).

The letterbox is open.