An Eclectic Collection of

Corr

espondence

D e s e r v i n g of a
Wider Audi e nce
Compiled by

shaun usher

Letter No. 023

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!

JOHN W. JAMES III to U.S. PRESIDENT
RICHARD NIXON
July 12, 1973

72

Letter No. 024

July 1973 wasnt the best of months for U.S.

President Richard Nixon. The Watergate scandal
that would ultimately cost him his job was gathering steam. The revelation that conversations in
the Oval Office had been secretly recorded added
yet another twist to a murky tale that already had
millions gripped. Then, midmonth, pneumonia
arrived on his cluttered doorstep and a weakened

Nixon was forced to watch the televised hearings

from a hospital bed. Still, at least he had John W.
James III on his sidean empathetic eight-yearold boy whose charming letter of advice reached
the troubled president halfway through his recovery and so amused Nixon that he read it aloud to
the White House staff on his return.

A PERSONAL LETTER FROM

STEVE MARTIN
STEVE MARTIN to JERRY CARLSON
1979
Celebrities are faced with a dilemma as their
star ascends: The fan mail that used to trickle

to the front door now needs its own home, and

replyinga task that once took a couple of hours
each weekis suddenly a full-time job. A small
few battle on, determined to respond personally
to each piece of correspondence. Most, however,
take the easy, altogether more sensible route: a
form letter, to be signed as a stock reply for every
fan. Impersonal and slightly disappointing, yes,
but a response nonetheless.

Trust comedy legend Steve Martin to come out

smelling of roses. A personal letter from Steve
Martin, a form letter in which just a few words
were personalized for each recipient with perfect comic pitch, was hilarious precisely for that
reason. This particular example was sent to a
seventeen-year-old fan named Jerry Carlson in
1979, the same year The Jerk, one of Martins
most entertaining films, was released.

73

Letter No. 048

Letter No. 049

THE BIRCH BARK LETTERS

GAVRIL POSENYA to RELATIVES
Circa 1350
On July 26, 1951, in the historic Russian city of
Novgorod, archaeologist Nina Federovna A
kulova
unearthed a remarkable artifact: a layer of birch
bark on to which a personal letter had been
carved. Determined to have originated around
the year 1400, the letter was written in the
Novgorodian dialect of Old East Slavic. Its discovery would be followed by over a thousand birch
bark letters found in the region by the team of
archaeologist Artemiy Artsikhovsky. Mostly of a
business or personal nature, and spanning the
eleventh to fifteenth centuries, they offer a fascinating insight into the lives and language of
East Slavs during the Russian Middle Ages. This
particular letter dates from the 1340s1360s and
was found in 1972.

t r a nsl at ion :

Greetings from Gavril Posenya to my brother-in-law, godfather Grigorii and my

sister Ulita. It would make me happy if you came to town, and did not disregard
our promise. May God give you happiness. We all will not forget your promise.

TO A TOP SCIENTIST
DENIS COX to A TOP SCIENTIST
October 28, 1957

126

In 1957, following the announcement that the

Soviets had trumped the United States with the
successful launch of Sputnik I, twelve-year-old
schoolboy Denis Cox sent this urgent letter to
the Royal Australian Air Forces Rocket Range
at Woomera, in an attempt to enter his country
proudly into the Space Race. Alas, Denis received
no responseat least not for fifty-two years. In

2009, his original letter made the news after

being featured on the website of the National
Archives of Australia. Thanks to the coverage,
Denis, who had since gone on to devote much of
his professional life not to rocket science but to
the protection and wise management of the natural environment, finally got his reply.

127

Australian Government
Department of Defence
Defence Science and
Technology Organisation
Mr Denis Cox
28/8/09
Dear Mr Cox,
I would like to thank you for your letter we received on 20th Oct. 1957 regarding
the design of your rocketship. I apologise for the late response to your letters.
You will appreciate, that as you requested A Top Scientist that uses the
WOOMERA ROCKET RANGE it took a little while for your letter to get to me
and in addition, it took some time to provide due consideration to your ideas.
In any case, I have included a picture of our latest flight of a hypersonic vehicle
under the HIFiRE Program, so that you may see that many of your designs
have merit. The fins are a little smaller, and on our work, we havent advanced
sufficiently to put people on board, as you clearly indicated we should. Curiously
enough though, people are still toying with the idea of combining rocket engines
with turbines as suggested in your letter. These engines are now called Rocket
Based Combined Cycle Engines and seem to work about as well as they did back in
1957! I am also quite interested in the shape of the fuselage, it actually shows a lot
of merit!
I think that the most interesting statement you made in your letter was YOU
PUT IN OTHER DETAILS. You were clearly going to be an excellent Program
Manager, by providing those that know best the freedom in the matter to get
it right. Furthermore, you did have your priorities right as AUSTRALIAN
MARKINGS are the most prominent feature of the design.
I remember as a boy designing rocket ships and planes at about the same time that
you wrote your letter. I dont know why or how, but somehow I was lucky enough
to get to a position where I now head a team that designs planes and engines that
will soon fly at Mach 8, or around 9000km/hr. I am proud to tell you that these
planes will have an AUSTRALIAN MARKING on them as you indicated they
should have. My one hope is that we do a sufficiently good job that is worthy of the
inspiration, dreams and hopes that you provided in your letter those many years ago.
Once again, thank you for your letter.
(Signed)
Allan Paul BSc PhD MEngSc
Research Leader Applied Hypersonics
Air Vehicles Division
DSTO-Brisbane

128

To a Top Scientist

To a Top Scientist

129

Australian Government
Department of Defence
Defence Science and
Technology Organisation
Mr Denis Cox
28/8/09
Dear Mr Cox,
I would like to thank you for your letter we received on 20th Oct. 1957 regarding
the design of your rocketship. I apologise for the late response to your letters.
You will appreciate, that as you requested A Top Scientist that uses the
WOOMERA ROCKET RANGE it took a little while for your letter to get to me
and in addition, it took some time to provide due consideration to your ideas.
In any case, I have included a picture of our latest flight of a hypersonic vehicle
under the HIFiRE Program, so that you may see that many of your designs
have merit. The fins are a little smaller, and on our work, we havent advanced
sufficiently to put people on board, as you clearly indicated we should. Curiously
enough though, people are still toying with the idea of combining rocket engines
with turbines as suggested in your letter. These engines are now called Rocket
Based Combined Cycle Engines and seem to work about as well as they did back in
1957! I am also quite interested in the shape of the fuselage, it actually shows a lot
of merit!
I think that the most interesting statement you made in your letter was YOU
PUT IN OTHER DETAILS. You were clearly going to be an excellent Program
Manager, by providing those that know best the freedom in the matter to get
it right. Furthermore, you did have your priorities right as AUSTRALIAN
MARKINGS are the most prominent feature of the design.
I remember as a boy designing rocket ships and planes at about the same time that
you wrote your letter. I dont know why or how, but somehow I was lucky enough
to get to a position where I now head a team that designs planes and engines that
will soon fly at Mach 8, or around 9000km/hr. I am proud to tell you that these
planes will have an AUSTRALIAN MARKING on them as you indicated they
should have. My one hope is that we do a sufficiently good job that is worthy of the
inspiration, dreams and hopes that you provided in your letter those many years ago.
Once again, thank you for your letter.
(Signed)
Allan Paul BSc PhD MEngSc
Research Leader Applied Hypersonics
Air Vehicles Division
DSTO-Brisbane

128

To a Top Scientist

To a Top Scientist

129