Love Letters Through Time

Old love letters seem almost impossibly romantic today, in the age of Whatsapp and Snapchat. A real, tangible link to days when communication wasn’t immediate, and our ancestors could wait for days, months, even years for a missive from their beloved that might never arrive. Anticipation plays a huge part in the appeal.

There are famous love letters throughout history, from the Song of Solomon in the Bible, to the affectionate letters that Roman consuls Cicero and Pliny wrote to their wives, right through to the 1990s, and Johnny Cash’s birthday message to June Carter Cash.

While most love letters are private, a select few from famous names across the world have been published, allowing us a brief glimpse into the love lives of historical names. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous.

Napoléon to Joséphine

Napoleon was famously devoted to his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, writing her a great number of passionate love letters.

His letters to her at the beginning of their marriage, when Napoléon left Joséphine in Paris to lead the Army of Italy, are particularly fervent, and include the line below.

You to whom nature has given spirit, sweetness, and beauty, you who alone can move and rule my heart, you who know all too well the absolute empire you exercise over it!

After their marriage was annulled because, at the age of 46 she was not able to conceive an heir, Napoléon remained devoted to Joséphine, and even insisted that she retained the title of Empress of the French.

Frida Kahlo to Diego Riviera

There is no doubt that Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera had a tumultuous relationship. They both had multiple affairs, lived in separate homes throughout their marriage, and even divorced in 1939 only to get remarried just the following year. Many of Kahlo’s paintings were self portraits, and reflected her emotional state at the time of painting, so you can see the ups and downs of their relationship in the art she left behind.

Kahlo and Rivera were both prolific letter writers, and their letters to one another during both the good and the bad times of their relationship give an insight into the passion they felt for one another.

Nothing compares to your hands, nothing like the green-gold of your eyes. [...] you are the mirror of the night. the violent flash of lightning. the dampness of the earth.

Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf

When writers Sackville-West and Woolf met in 1922 they were both already married to men, but there was immediately an attraction. Soon after their first meeting, Woolf wrote in her diary that “[Sackville-West] is a pronounced Sapphist, and may, thinks Ethel Sands, have an eye on me, old though I am.”

Affection between women was not subject to the same legal persecution as male same-sex relationships at the time, and their connection - though somewhat unconventional - found a measure of discreet acceptance.

Their relationship began in 1925 and lasted 10 years, and unfolded with a quiet understanding among their social circles - even among their own households, with Leonard Wolf serving as his wife’s driver, escorting her to Sackville-West’s home.

In one particularly moving letter, Sackville-West expresses her yearning for Woolf while they’re apart, and describes that universal feeling of making a detailed and brilliant plan in the middle of the night only for all memory of it to have disappeared by the morning.

I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way.

Their relationship was intimate and deeply emotional, but largely discreet. Their bond nurtured both of their creative spirits, with both writers producing some of their most celebrated works during their decade together. An enduring legacy of literary brilliance.

Wŏn’s Mother to Yi Ŭngt'ae

In 1586, a Korean scholar named Yi Ŭngt'ae (sometimes anglicised as Eung-Tae Lee) passed away, leaving behind a heartbroken wife and a love letter that has resonated through time. Still on Yi Ŭngt'ae’s chest, preserved in his tomb until it was discovered in 1998, the letter offers a rare and intimate glimpse into their relationship.

It was written on delicate hanji paper, and her words are raw with sorrow and longing. She laments his passing, questioning how he could leave her alone with their young son and pregnant with another child, despite their dreams of growing old together. Her pleas are a heart-wrenching testament to the strength of their bond and the enduring heartache of loss.

You always said, “Dear, let’s live together until our hair turns gray and die on the same day.” How could you pass away without me? Who should I and our little boy listen to and how should we live? How could you go ahead of me?

Alongside the letter, archaeologists found sandals with a note in the same handwriting explaining that Yi Ŭngt'ae’s wife had used her own hair to craft them: “Using my hair, made these shoes... died before they could be worn.” Historians and archaeologists believe that she made them as a way of ritually praying for her husband’s health before he passed, which was a practice during the Joseon period in Korea.

The love letter, preserved for centuries, stands as a powerful reminder that true love, in all its joy and sorrow, transcends both time and mortality.

Beethoven to his mysterious “Immortal Beloved”

After Beethoven’s death in 1827, a mysterious love letter was discovered among his belongings. The undated, unaddressed letter refers only to its recipient as “my angel,” “my everything,” and “my immortal beloved.” Analysis indicates it was written in early July 1812 - shortly after Beethoven’s arrival in Teplitz via Prague - and is now generally believed to have been intended for his long-term lover, Josephine Brunsvick.

By the summer of 1812 her second husband had abandoned her and their children, and evidence suggests she planned a visit to Prague around the same time Beethoven was there.

[...] while still in bed my thoughts rush toward you my Immortal Beloved now and then happy, then again sad, awaiting fate, if it will grant us a favorable hearing - I can only live either wholly with you or not at all.

yes I have resolved to wander about in the distance, until I can fly into your arms, and can call myself entirely at home with you […]

There is speculation that Josephine’s daughter Minona - born nine months later - was fathered by Beethoven. However, he never acknowledged the child and there’s no evidence that they met.

Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas

In a society that criminalised their love, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas shared a passionate and tumultuous relationship. Wilde’s letters to Douglas reveal both longing and devotion.

Besides, I want to see you. It is really absurd. I can’t live without you. You are so dear, so wonderful. I think of you all day long, and miss your grace, your boyish beauty, the bright sword-play of your wit, the delicate fancy of your genius, so surprising always in its sudden swallow-flights towards north and south, towards sun and moon — and, above all, yourself.

Wilde wrote this to Douglas while under the looming threat of prosecution for “gross indecency,” now an old and far outdated term. This letter stands as a powerful reminder of love’s resilience even in the face of societal condemnation.

Thankfully, attitudes have evolved and people now feel free to express their love openly, regardless of gender or societal expectations. While progress has been made, history teaches us the importance of continuing the stand against discrimination and to celebrate love in all its forms.

Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash

Both country music legends, Johnny and June met backstage in Nashville in 1956, where Johnny reportedly told her that he would marry her one day - right in his first sentence. Their love was steadfast through life’s ups and downs, filled with humour, warmth, and an unbreakable bond.

In 1994, after decades of marriage, Johnny wrote a birthday note to June. Once voted the most romantic love letter ever written, it beautifully and simply captures not only his enduring admiration for her but also the comfortable humour that defines a love tested by time and triumph.

…once in a while, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence. I love you very much.

June passed away in May 2003 at the age of 73, and Johnny was reportedly never the same. He continued to work, recording 60 songs before passing away himself just four months later in September 2003.

Do you have an ancestor’s love letter stowed away in your attic, or discovered a stash of them hidden furtively under the floorboards? Perhaps, this Valentine’s Day, you could go digging for love stories buried in your family’s history.

If you’d like to share love stories from your genealogical research, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with Living DNA by email at help@livingdna.com, using the Contact Us form on our website, or drop us a line on Facebook!