Yes, there is such a lovely thing called a journal letter - a letter written over a long time like a diary, and sent to a close friend, partner or family member. My beloved poet John Keats ❤excelled at the journal letter, sending long accounts of his life & thoughts to his brother George and George's wife Georgiana. The couple had emigrated to the US.
One of my most treasured books at home is the Keats Selected letters and poems! I guess it's the next best thing to having the complete letters collection!
The letters of John Keats are considered among the best ever written, and justifiably so. Even after nearly two centuries they are vibrant and alive! Reading them you get the sense of Keats's complicated mind working behind every paragraph and every thought.
In the letters, Keats elaborated his theories on poetry, imagination & identity. But there is a lot of personal material too- affection and concern for his siblings and friends, and the passionate love he felt for his fiancée Fanny Browne.
How would the journal letter fare in the age of social media? I think the form of communication has changed (less words, emoji, hush tags and so forth). What has not changed is the emotion and the imagination that accompany it.
And I think this is something Keats himself would have agreed on!
P.S. Keats died at 25, leaving no children, but his brother and sister-in-law had 10. I read somewhere that descendants still exist in Louisville, Kentucky 😀
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