Letters of Note dials it back to the days when “text” never functioned as a verb and there was no such thing as 140-character sentiments. Compiled by Shaun Usher, and based on his five-year blog of the same name, the book features a fascinating array of correspondences from an equally fascinating cast of characters. There’s the letter Jack Kerouac wrote to Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway’s missive to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sol LeWitt’s advice to a self-doubting Eva Hesse… and that’s just a handful of the 125 examples, which gives a curious and compelling peek into the past no history book’s offered before. Here, a close-up look at two of Usher’s finds: a handwritten note from Queen Elizabeth II to President Eisenhower — plus her personal recipe for drop scones — and a short brief between two pop culture icons that led to the Warhol-designed cover of the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers.

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