Before the age of SMS, email, and social media, the quickest way for distant folks to chat was penning a letter. Most correspondence was meant for private eyes, so it’s no wonder we stumble upon jaw‑dropping revelations when we dig into these archives. Below are 10 important historical letters that nearly slipped into oblivion.
10 Important Historical Letters Overview
10 Fidel Castro To President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Fidel Castro managed to outlive roughly ten U.S. presidents, most of whom would have loved to see him gone – some even tried. Yet his very first brush with an American president was surprisingly cordial.
Back in 1940, a 12‑year‑old pupil at Colegio de Dolores in Santiago, Cuba, penned a note to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He opened with the familiar, “My good friend Roosevelt,” then expressed delight at hearing Roosevelt’s re‑election on the radio. The youngster also asked for a ten‑dollar bill, having never laid eyes on one before. That eager boy was none other than Fidel Castro.
Casting himself as a bright, albeit English‑limited, student, he wrote, “I am a boy, but I think very much.” The letter arrived at the State Department on November 27, 1940, yet never reached Roosevelt, who died never knowing the future Cuban leader.
9 Queen Elizabeth II To President Eisenhower
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower earned the distinction of being the first U.S. president to host the British monarch. The Queen enjoyed the visit so much that she later invited the Eisenhowers to Balmoral, Scotland, two years afterward.
During that Scottish sojourn, Eisenhower seemed unable to shake the memory of the Queen’s famous drop scones. Five months later, on January 24, 1960, the monarch sent him a handwritten letter that included her personal recipe for those very scones.
The note, inspired by a newspaper photo of Eisenhower barbecuing a quail, detailed a recipe sufficient for sixteen diners, with guidance on scaling down ingredients for smaller gatherings. The Queen concluded by expressing how much she and her family had treasured his visit.
8 Hitler’s Letter Of Leave
On March 1, 1932, Adolf Hitler drafted a request to the State of Brunswick, asking for a leave of absence so he could campaign in the upcoming presidential election for the Reich. This missive arrived just four days after Hitler secured German citizenship, having previously been an Austrian.
Hitler’s bid ultimately fell short, losing to incumbent Paul von Hindenburg. Nevertheless, a year later Hindenburg appointed him chancellor. The letter itself is riddled with grammatical slips and centers on Hitler’s plea for time off until “the end of the time for the selection of the next President of the Reich.”
Only surfacing a few years ago, the document was expected to fetch over £5,000 at auction, underscoring its rarity among 10 important historical correspondences.
7 Albert Einstein To President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Albert Einstein’s 1939 letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt stands among the most consequential 10 important historical letters of the modern era. In it, Einstein warned that German scientists might be on the brink of creating a devastating weapon.
Later, Einstein himself called the letter one of the greatest errors of his life. Scholars suspect that physicist Leo Szilard actually drafted the note, with Einstein merely affixing his signature.
Besides this famous missive, Einstein penned three additional letters to Roosevelt. While the first two offered counsel and suggestions, the third—undelivered before Roosevelt’s death—sought a personal meeting between the president’s cabinet and Szilard’s team to discuss the nuclear threat.
6 Mahatma Gandhi To Adolf Hitler
Between 1939 and 1940, Mahatma Gandhi dispatched two letters to Adolf Hitler. The better‑known “Dear Friend” missive, written in July 1939, argued that World War II could only be averted by Hitler’s intervention, urging him to adopt Gandhi’s non‑violent principles.
The second, more obscure letter arrived in December 1940, after hostilities had begun. It stripped away the friendly salutation, reminding Hitler that addressing him as a “friend” was merely a formality. Gandhi likened Nazism to the British imperialism India was resisting, warning that another world power would eventually out‑maneuver Hitler with his own weapons.
He concluded this stern warning by extending the same cautionary note to Mussolini, emphasizing the universal need for peace.
5 Leonardo Da Vinci’s Job Application
Long before his fame as a painter, Leonardo da Vinci was a jack‑of‑all‑trades seeking patronage. In 1482, at age thirty, he wrote directly to the Duke of Milan, offering his services in a surprisingly modern job application.
Da Vinci catalogued an impressive arsenal of talents: from designing naval artillery, armored wagons, catapults, and mangonels to proposing siege‑engine tactics. He also boasted capabilities in civil engineering—planning bridges, constructing edifices, and sculpting in clay, bronze, and marble.
To dispel any doubts about his martial focus, he emphasized his architectural and artistic skills, ending the letter with a bold invitation for the Duke to summon him for a trial if any of his claims seemed exaggerated.
4 Malcolm X To Martin Luther King Jr.
Although Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the same cause, they were hardly friends. King championed non‑violence, while Malcolm X advocated a more militant stance, even dubbing King “Reverend Doctor Chicken‑wing.”
Malcolm X sent two letters to King—one in 1963 and another in 1964. The first urged King to attend an outdoor rally, arguing that if President John F. Kennedy (a capitalist) and Soviet leader Khrushchev (a communist) could find common ground, so could they. He suggested that if King could not appear personally, he should dispatch a representative.
The second, dated June 30, 1964, took a harsher tone. It highlighted the plight of St. Augustine’s residents and warned that, should the government fail to intervene, his brothers might be compelled to give the Ku Klux Klan “a taste of their own medicine.”
3 Oscar Wilde’s “De Profundis”
The strained relationship between the Marquess of Queensberry and his son, Lord Alfred Douglas, is usually blamed on the relationship Douglas, or “Bosie,” had with Oscar Wilde, who subsequently endured two years in prison after he was convicted of gross indecency. While still in prison at Reading Gaol, Wilde penned a letter to Douglas. The letter was published as an essay and entitled “De Profundis,” which means “from the depths.” It was a reflection of the betrayal of Douglas and Wilde’s regrets.
Wilde stated in the letter that he felt forsaken by Douglas, who published the personal letters and poems Wilde wrote to him. He also wrote that Douglas pushed him to his doom by exploiting his weakness. He blamed himself for not being able to say no to Douglas. He also gave advice to Douglas: “Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live.”
2 Benjamin Franklin To William Strahan
Before America entered the Revolutionary War, one of its most celebrated founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, enjoyed a close friendship with William Strahan, a prominent printer, publisher, and member of the British Parliament.
Even after the war began, the two remained on friendly terms—until Franklin learned that Strahan had voted alongside his colleagues to label the American colonists as rebels. In response, Franklin penned a scathing letter to his former confidant.
The missive opened formally, addressing Strahan as “Mr. Strahan,” then accused him and his parliamentary peers of orchestrating the chaos consuming the United States. Franklin called them murderers, urging Strahan to look at his own hands for the bloodstains of his relatives. He concluded by declaring their friendship terminated, labeling them enemies from that moment forward.
1 Grace Bedell To Abraham Lincoln
We once talked about how Abraham Lincoln began keeping his iconic beard after receiving a letter from a young girl named Grace Bedell, who was 11 at the time. In Bedell’s letter dated October 15, 1860, she suggested that Lincoln should grow a beard because his face was thin and he would look better with it. Bedell claimed that women loved beards and would even coax their husbands to vote for him in the elections. Sensing he might be busy, Bedell suggested that Lincoln let any of his daughters reply on his behalf.
Abraham Lincoln personally replied to the missive four days later. He acknowledged getting her letter and told her he didn’t have any daughters—just three sons. He also added that growing a beard might be seen as a senseless affectation. Grace Bedell would later meet the newly elected—and bearded—president when he came to Westfield in 1861.