Privatbrevet är den skrivna vänskapen.

Vänskapen ger rätt till intimitet, inte bara mellan vänner, utan också när det gäller andra: vänner, fiender, makthavare. Mottagaren kan svara eller låta bli – det räcker att en skriver för att korrespondensen skall hållas igång. En viktig egenskap hos privatbrevet är oväsentligheterna. Ju oväsentligare, dvs. ju mindre information, som förlorar sin aktualitet eller bara rör de inblandade, desto bättre behåller det sitt läsvärde. Att skriva 
om ingenting är svårt. För att hålla adressatens intresse vid liv måste man skriva underhållande och bra. 
ur "Brevet – en genre för kvinnor" av Marianne Alenius

OLD-FASHIONED LETTERS

Old-fashioned letters! How good they were!And nobody writes them now;Never at all comes in the scrawlOn the written pages which told us allThe news of town and the folks we knew,And what they had done or were going to do.It seems we've forgotten howTo spend an hour with our pen in handTo write in the language we understand.

Old-fashioned letters we used to getAnd ponder each fond line o'er;The glad words rolled like running gold,As smoothly their tales of joy they told,And our hearts beat fast with a keen delightAs we read the news they were pleased to writeAnd gathered the love they bore.But few of the letters that come to-dayAre penned to us in the old-time way.

Old-fashioned letters that told us allThe tales of the far away;Where they'd been and the folks they'd seen;And better than any fine magazineWas the writing too, for it bore the styleOf a simple heart and a sunny smile,And was pure as the breath of May.Some of them oft were damp with tears,But those were the letters that lived for years.

Old-fashioned letters! How good they were!And, oh, how we watched the mails;But nobody writes of the quaint delightsOf the sunny days and the merry nightsOr tells us the things that we yearn to know—That art passed out with the long ago,And lost are the simple tales;Yet we all would happier be, I think,If we'd spend more time with our pen and ink.

Så länge det har funnits postgång, har vi människor nog längtat efter brev, den här dikten finns med i Edgar A. Guests diktsamling All That Matters från 1922.