Dear Reader

Abstract

D ear Reader,This issue of French Historical Studies is about letters. It is also of letters or, rather, of emails-today's equivalent: almost a thousand of them, after a cursory count, among four editors and six contributors, spread out over eighteen months as the issue goes into production in September 2020. These have been long and short, dense with form and content or monosyllabic in response to a precise question. Some have been addressed individually, others collectively; several have been forwarded to other people as well. They have been written at all times of day and night, over five to six hours' time difference, at office desks, on bus seats, and in bed. Sent from institutional email accounts, personal ones, computers, smartphones, or tablets, they have been received and (presumably) read in an equally wide range of settings and setups. Some took time and much thought, even a few drafts and dictionary assistance; others were written hastily and sometimes carelessly. Most of these emails are professional and work related; some are more personal and even intimate. Their layout, modes of salutation, and tone have varied over time, betraying in turn deference and familiarity, enthusiasm (often) and frustration (occasionally), tact and indiscretion, fatigue and hastiness (all too frequently). They have sought to salute, inform, transmit, respond, disagree, persuade, help, flatter, encourage, (gently) reproach, and more-with varying degrees of success and sometimes achieving the opposite effect. They have been in English and (mostly) in French. Spelling mistakes shall not be counted. Some have a distinct font, a colorful signature, even the odd emoji. Many have attachments; a few forgot theirs. Addressees were occasionally forgotten as well, or erroneously added, even secretively blind carbon copied at times. Some emails were hastily (and mercifully) "undone" before traveling thousands of miles in a matter of seconds. Although a few fell through the cracks, most went answered, if not always immediately and equally