The Spartans respond to a letter from Philip II of Macedon 14
Caesar's murderers correspond to work out their next move 16
St. Paul guides the principles of Christianity through his letters 18
Tablets reveal details of life at the edge of the Roman Empire 20
Pliny the Younger describes the eruption at Pompeii to Tacitus 22
Romano-Britons plead for help from Rome as the empire falls 24
English barons try to flex their legal muscle after Magna Carta 26
Joan of Arc tells Henry VI she has God on her side 28
Leonardo da Vinci sets out his skills to the Duke of Milan 30
Henry VII writes to English nobles asking for their support 32
Columbus explains his discoveries to the king of Spain 34
Martin Luther tells his friend, 'Let your sins be strong' 36
Henry VIII writes a love letter to Anne Boleyn 38
De las Casas exposes Spain's atrocities in the New World 40
Elizabeth I writes to Bloody Mary, begging for her life 42
Babington's plot is revealed in coded letters to Mary, Queen of Scots 44
Philip II of Spain insists the Armada press on and attack England 46
Lord Monteagle gets a carefully worded warning ... 48
Galileo explains the first sighting of the moons of Jupiter 50
Charles II reassures Parliament that they will be in control 52
The English nobility make Prince William of Orange an offer 54
Ben Franklin's stolen mail reveals a political scandal 56
Abigail Adams tells husband John to 'Remember the Ladies' 58
George Washington employs his first spy in the Revolutionary War 60
Jefferson advises his nephew to question the existence of God 62
Mozart writes to his wife as he struggles to finish Requiem 64
Maria Reynolds tells Alexander Hamilton her husband has found out 66
Thomas Jefferson wants a French botanist to explore the northwest 68
After murdering Marat in his bath, Charlotte Corday writes in despair 70
On the eve of battle, Lord Nelson sends a message to his fleet 72
Napoleon informs Alexander I that France and Russia are at war 74
As machines replace farm labour, Captain Swing issues a threat 76
Charles Darwin gets an offer to become the naturalist on a surveying ship 78
The first postage stamp transforms the sending of letters 80
Friedrich 'Fred' Engels begins a lifelong correspondence with Karl 'Moor' Marx 82
Baudelaire writes a suicide letter to his mistress ... and lives 84
Major Robert Anderson reports he has surrendered Fort Sumter 86
On the eve of battle, Sullivan Ballou writes to his wife, Sarah 88
Abraham Lincoln sends GeneralMcClellan an ultimatum 90
Abraham Lincoln spells out his Civil War priorities to Horace Greeley 92
William Banting wants the world to know how he lost weight 94
General Sherman reminds the citizens of Atlanta that war is hell 96
Vincent van Gogh writes an emotional letter to his brother, Theo 98
A Chicago Methodist training school launches a moneymaker 100
George Washington Williams sends a furious open letter to King Leopold II of Belgium 102
Alexander Graham Bell writes to Helen Keller's teacher Anne Sullivan 104
Beatrix Potter illustrates a letter to cheer up five-year-old Noel Moore 106
Pierre Curie sends Marie a letter begging her to come back and study 108
Oscar Wilde writes a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas from Reading Gaol 110
Writer Émile Zola accuses the French army of an anti-Semitic conspiracy 112
Orville and Wilbur Wright send news to their father, Bishop Milton Wright 114
John Muir lobbies Teddy Roosevelt about incursions into Yosemite 116
Lewis Wickes Hine reports to the National Child Labor Committee 118
Captain Scott: 'We have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen' 120
The very final letter from the Titanic that was never sent 122
Zimmermann offers Mexico the return of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico 124
Lord Stamfordham suggests a new name for the British royal family 126
Siegfried Sassoon sends an open letter to The Times 128
Adof Hitler's first anti-Semitic writing, a letter sent to Adolf Gemlich 130
Master spy Guy Burgess gets a reference to join the BBC 132
Eleanor Roosevelt takes a stand against the Daughters of the American Revolution 134
Albert Einstein and Leo Szilárd warn President Franklin D. Roosevelt 136
Mussolini congratulates Hitler on his pact with Russia 138
Winston Churchill pens a blunt response to his private secretary 140
Roosevelt sends Churchill the poem that moved Abraham Lincoln 142
Virginia Woolf writes a final letter to her husband Leonard 144
Winston Churchill gets an urgent request from the codebreakers 146
Telegram reports that Pearl Harbor is under attack 148
General Nye sends General Alexander a misleading letter ... by submarine 150
Oppenheimer gets the go-ahead to research an atomic bomb 152
J. Edgar Hoover receives 'The Anonymous Letter' 154
The shipwrecked JFK sends a vital message with two Solomon Islanders 156
Marshal Tito warns Stalin to stop sending assassination squads 158
Lillian Hellman sends a letter and a message to Senator McCarthy 160
William Borden identifies J. Robert Oppenheimer as a Soviet spy 162
Jackie Robinson tells Eisenhower his people are tired of waiting 164
Wallace Stegner composes as paean to the American wilderness 166
Nelson Mandela sends the South African prime minister an ultimatum 168
Decca sends a rejection letter to Beatles manager Brian Epstein 170
On the brink of war, Khrushchev sends a conciliatory letter to Kennedy 172
Kennedy replies to Khrushchev as tensions ease 174
Martin Luther King, Jr. sends a letter from Birmingham City Jail 176
Profumo's resignation puts an end to British politics' biggest sex scandal 178
Che Guevara tells Fidel Castro he wants to continue the fight 180
James McCord writes to Judge John Sirica after the Watergate trial 182
Ronald Wayne sells his 10 percent share in Apple for $800 184
Bill Gates writes an open letter to computer hobbyists who are ripping off his software 186
Michael Schumacher crosses out 'the' and becomes World Champion 188
Boris Yeltsin admits running Russia was tougher than he expected 190
Sharron Watkins sends a letter criticizing Enron's dubious accounting 192
Dr. David Kelly admits he was the source for critical BBC report 194
Bobby Henderson asks Kansas to acknowledge the Spaghetti Monster 196
Chelsea Manning writes to Wikileaks with a data dump 198
Astronauts lament America's lack of a space delivery system 200
Pussy Riot singer trades philosophies with Slavoj Zizek 202
Edward Snowden has a shocking revelation for the German press 204
The whistleblowers appeal to future whistleblowers 206
Letters - the next investment boom to follow art? 208
Women in the entertainment industry demand change 210
Greta Thunberg reads a letter to the Indian prime minister 212
Addendum: Helen Keller writes to Alexander Graham Bell 214
Index 221
