My husband is the kind of person who already owns the book you’re thinking of getting him. He has the good multi-tool (a Leatherman Wave+, which he has strong opinions about). He has David McCullough’s 1776 on a shelf he’s read twice. He genuinely does not need anything. Every birthday and Christmas, I end up frozen somewhere between “this feels impersonal” and “he’s going to own this already.”
Last year I gave him historic letters from Letterjoy. How did it go? Well, you’ll just have to keep reading to find out.
What is Letterjoy?
It’s a subscription service that mails a reproduction of a real historical letter once a week, on premium stationery, by first-class mail. Real figures, Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson, Sitting Bull, MacArthur. Each letter comes with a short article called The Postscript that gives context about who wrote it and why.
My husband subscribed to the American History collection, which covers 1776 to 1960. There’s also a Military History collection and a Famous Authors one.
Why I almost didn’t buy it
I almost got him a Leatherman Charge+ instead, an upgrade from the one he has. Practical. Things he actually uses. Totally impersonal and I knew it before I clicked buy.
I found Letterjoy while looking for something that would take him off his phone for five minutes. My husband reads a lot, real books, not articles, and he watches Ken Burns documentaries on weekend mornings when the kids are still asleep. History is the thing he loves that I can’t participate in at his level, mostly because he’s so far ahead of me. I thought: what if the gift gave him something to tell me about, rather than something he’d consume alone?
The first envelope
It arrived on a Thursday afternoon. He texted me from the driveway: “There’s a weird envelope here with my name on it. This from you?”
The first letter was from Benjamin Franklin, written during his time in France, wry and sharp and distinctly Franklin. My husband read it at the kitchen counter, then read the Postscript, then looked up and gave me a summary of what he’d just learned about the Paris diplomatic mission of the 1770s, information I had not asked for and did not especially need, delivered with the specific enthusiasm of a man who has found something to explain.
Reader, this is what I wanted.
The unexpected part: the ritual
What I didn’t anticipate was the routine it settled into. The letter comes sometime between Wednesday and Friday, mail timing varies, and he opens it the same day it arrives. On most weeks he reads it before dinner and mentions something from it at the table. Our kids, who are nine and twelve, have started asking questions. The twelve-year-old now knows who Sitting Bull was and has approximately correct opinions about the circumstances of Lincoln’s second inaugural. I count this as a net positive.
The Postscript article is short, two or three paragraphs, and my husband said early on that he appreciated how it didn’t oversell the letter. “It just tells you what you need to know.” He’s not someone who tolerates filler.
One week the letter was from a Civil War general to his wife the night before a major engagement. I’m not going to tell you which one because the letter itself is worth getting. He brought it up again two weeks later.
What I would tell you before buying it
A few not-perfect things to note:
The letters take two to three weeks to arrive after you first subscribe, so it’s not an instant gift. If you’re giving it for a birthday happening soon, buy it early or have a printed gift notice ready (They have one on their website).
My husband keeps the letters. He has a small stack growing in the drawer of his nightstand. That’s a choice each person makes, but worth knowing the letters are keepsakes-sized, not junk-mail-sized.
It’s not for everyone. If your husband’s relationship with history is more “enjoys a good movie set in WWII” than “has read Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy,” the Letterjoy pitch is softer. The letters are primary sources, not dramatized. They reward someone who finds the raw document interesting.
Who it’s wrong for
Skip it if your husband prefers digital, dislikes mail in general, or has no real interest in history. It’s specifically analog and specifically historical.
Also skip it if he’d rather have the Leatherman upgrade. That’s a solid gift. Buy the Charge+ (around $130) and don’t overthink it.
Who it’s right for
The man who reads history. Who has opinions about which Lincoln biography is best. Who watched all eight episodes of Ken Burns’s The Civil War and then started the companion book. Who checks the mail with some faint hope of finding something real in it.
That man will love this. I can confirm. Next up, we’re getting the Military History series.