In 1858, Charles Dickens wrote a private letter explaining the collapse of his marriage. It was meant to be shown, not published. Within months, it appeared in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.

This episode tells the story of that letter and what followed.

The full text is read aloud, then placed in historical context alongside Dickens’s public statement, contemporary press reactions, and what later emerged about the lives of Catherine Dickens and Ellen Ternan.

This is not a verdict. It is an inquiry into how letters shape power, silence, and legacy, and what happens when private words outlive the people who wrote them.

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Sources

• Charles Dickens, letter to Arthur Smith, 25 May 1858 (“The Violated Letter”)

• Charles Dickens, “Personal,” Household Words and The Times, June 1858

• Contemporary newspaper coverage, August–September 1858

• Claire Tomalin, The Invisible Woman

• Lillian Nayder, The Other Dickens

• Patrick Leary, “How the Dickens Scandal Went Viral,” The Victorian Web

• Charles Dickens Museum, Catherine Dickens correspondence

In this 15-minute episode of Her Canvas Speaks, we explore the life and letters of Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), one of the first women to paint herself nude and a pioneer of early Expressionism. Through her correspondence, Paula offers a rare, unfiltered window into the emotional world of a woman artist caught between creativity, duty, and selfhood.

This episode centers on one of Paula’s 1907 letters written while she was pregnant, a raw and revealing piece in which she pleads with her sister to stop calling her impending childbirth a “blessed event.” Tired of being defined only by motherhood, Paula confides her fear of losing her identity as an artist and admits, “I have worked so little.”

We reflect on how Paula’s exhaustion, honesty, and fierce self-belief echo the struggles many still face today: the tension between personal purpose and societal roles, between ambition and expectation. Through historical context and Paula’s own words, this episode offers a meditation on identity, overwhelm, and the timeless courage to believe in oneself.

Full Letter Featured:

Letter from Paula Modersohn-Becker to her sister (Worpswede, 1907), translated from German.

Primary Sources and References:

• Bachrach, Susan. Paula Modersohn-Becker: Biography. Fembio. https://www.fembio.org

• The Art Story Foundation. “Paula Modersohn-Becker Artist Overview and Analysis.” https://www.theartstory.org/artist/modersohn-becker-paula

• Musée d’Orsay. “Women Painters in the 19th Century.” https://www.musee-orsay.fr

• Radycki, Diane. Paula Modersohn-Becker: The First Modern Woman Artist. Yale University Press, 2013.

• Modersohn-Becker, Paula. Letters and Journals. Translated by J. A. Underwood, 1960.

In this episode of One Sealed Letter, we travel back to December 22, 1849, when the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky stood blindfolded before a firing squad. Moments before the command to fire, a messenger arrived with a pardon from Tsar Nicholas I. What followed was one of the most extraordinary letters ever written: a missive to his brother Mikhail, written just hours after Dostoevsky believed he was about to die.

We’ll explore the backstory of his arrest and mock execution, then read the full text of the letter that begins, “Life is a gift, life is happiness, each minute might have been an age of happiness.” Through Dostoevsky’s words, we’ll reflect on how close encounters with death can reawaken our appreciation for beauty, simplicity, and time itself.

Read the letter in full and other letters of Dostoevsky here: https://ia800506.us.archive.org/15/items/dostoevskyletter00dostuoft/dostoevskyletter00dostuoft.pdf

Sources:

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, Letter to Mikhail Dostoevsky, December 22, 1849 (Old Style), translated in Lapham’s Quarterly (“Reborn Into a New Form”)

• Walker Caplan, “On the Terrifying Hoax Execution That Haunted Dostoevsky’s Writing,” Literary Hub (2022)

• Alex Christofi, “Reborn Into a New Form (1849),” The Public Domain Review

• Spencer Baum, “Dostoevsky and the Firing Squad,” Medium

Jack Kelly is an award-winning author and historian. In his newest book God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man, Jack offers a fresh exploration of Arnold’s paradoxical career, shedding new light on this gutsy yet enigmatic figure. In this podcast episode, Jack delves into the life and personal letters of Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold, examining what they reveal about Arnold’s character and legacy nearly 250 years later.

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Learn More about Jack Kelly

• Website: JackKellyBooks.com — https://jackkellybooks.com

• Substack (“Talking to America”): Subscribe for nuggets of history and updates — https://jackkellyattalkingtoamerica.substack.com

• Pre-order his new book, Tom Paine’s War (publishing January 2026):

• Macmillan page: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250331939/tompaineswar/

• Or wherever you get your books

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Letters Discussed in This Episode

1. Letter from Arnold’s mother (Hannah Arnold, April 12, 1754):

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold._A_biography/1

2. Benedict Arnold to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety (Ticonderoga, May 11, 1775):

https://www.fortticonderoga.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/The-Capture-of-Fort-Ticonderoga.pdf

3. Arnold’s angry letter to General Horatio Gates (Camp at Stillwater, September 22, 1777):

https://historianatsaratoga.wordpress.com/2024/09/22/otd-arnold-wrote-gates-9/

4. The Nathaniel Bacheller letter (Oct 9, 1777):

https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2019/08/a-benedict-arnold-letter-that-changed-history/

5. Arnold’s love letters to Betsy DeBlois (1777–78) and recycled for Peggy Shippen (1778–79):

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/betsy-deblois-girl-got-away-benedict-arnold/

In this episode, I sit down with Felice Cohen, an author and professional organizer whose lifelong love of letter writing has become her newest creative frontier. Felice is in the midst of a yearlong experiment of handwriting one letter every day, which she shares in her Substack, A Love Letter to Letters: https://felicecohen.substack.com. With more than 1,000 saved letters from her own life, she is also crafting an “epistolary memoir” that weaves together correspondence with reflections on intimacy, nostalgia, and the enduring beauty of putting pen to paper.

Beyond her devotion to letters, Felice is the bestselling author of 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (…or More), inspired by her time living in one of New York City’s smallest apartments, as well as Half In: A Coming-of-Age Memoir of Forbidden Love and What Papa Told Me, based on her grandfather’s Holocaust survival. Her books have been endorsed by Elie Wiesel, taught in classrooms worldwide, and honored with multiple awards.

We talk about what letters preserve that digital communication cannot, how personal correspondence becomes a record of connection and resilience, and why handwriting remains a radical act of presence.

Learn more about Felice at her website: https://www.felicecohen.com

Follow her Substack: https://felicecohen.substack.com

Watch her story on YouTube:

• Living Large in 90 Square Feet: https://youtu.be/Z4LNwaTUE60?si=h4i-jtDhS7IvbnRF

• Organizing Tips & Life Lessons: https://youtu.be/JZSdrtEqcHU?si=y117jtwudEXZCm1T

In 1743, Denis Diderot, later famed as a co-founder of the Encyclopédie, risked everything for love. After being imprisoned in a monastery by his father to prevent an “unsuitable” marriage, Diderot escaped through a window, trudged miles through rain to Paris, and wrote a desperate letter to his beloved, Anne-Antoinette Champion. In it, he confessed that his “life or death depends on [her] welcome.”

This episode reads Diderot’s letter in full (in English translation) and explores the circumstances of his clandestine wedding. The marriage took place in secret in Paris in November 1743, just after his thirtieth birthday when parental consent was no longer required.

More than a romantic anecdote, this story uncovers the drama of Enlightenment ideals colliding with family authority, and how vows of love and freedom can become life-defining acts.

In this episode of One Sealed Letter, we take to the skies with Benjamin Franklin as he witnesses the first balloon flights of 1783. From the gardens of Versailles to the Champs de Mars in Paris, Franklin recorded these marvels in letters to his friend Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society.

Franklin’s accounts blend diplomacy, science, and wonder. He details how balloons were constructed, the astonishment of crowds, and even his own anxiety for the first men to rise into the air. Along the way, we uncover what his correspondence teaches us about clarity, curiosity, and the art of writing letters that endure. His famous quip, “What good is a newborn baby?” reminds us that every new invention begins in uncertainty before it reshapes the world.

As Franklin himself mused, “I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.” In his words we find not only history, but a timeless lesson for our own creative lives.

Primary Sources Read in Full

• ​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, July 27, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University)
• ​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, August 30 – September 2, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin)
• ​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, October 8, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin)
• ​ Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks, November 22–25, 1783 (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin)

Additional historical context drawn from:

• ​ The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Digital Edition (Yale University)
• ​ Gillispie, Charles Coulston. The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783–1784. Princeton University Press, 1983.
• ​ Sciama, Yves. “The Balloonomania of 1783.” Scientific American, November 2003.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s early letters to Alfred Stieglitz (1916–1917) reveal her fierce independence, her longing for solitude, and her refusal to conform. In this episode of One Sealed Letter, we explore how her words illuminate the artist’s path – and why, as I step into life as a full-time artist myself, her voice feels like the perfect guide.

References:

• Sarah Greenough and Nicholas Cullinan, My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, Volume One, 1915–1933 (Yale University Press, 2011).

• Roxana Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life (University Press of New England, 1989).

• Amy Von Lintel, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Wartime Texas Letters (Texas A&M University Press, 2020).

• Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University: “The Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.”

What does it mean to focus on what you have, even when so much has been taken from you?

In this episode of One Sealed Letter, we step into the world of Helen Keller through her personal letters, read aloud in full. From her joyful discovery of language as a child to her awe at Niagara Falls and the World’s Fair, to her reflections as a young woman on love, purpose, and what truly matters, Helen’s voice radiates presence, wonder, and grace.

Through these letters, we explore:

• The beauty of small, daily joys

• What it means to live with deep gratitude

• How to choose what’s worth your time and energy—especially with the question: Will this matter in five years?

This episode is both a reading and a reflection, an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and live from a place of appreciation. Perfect for anyone feeling overwhelmed or in need of a reset.

In 1913, American cartoonist Alfred Joseph Frueh sent his fiancée, Giuliette Fanciulli, a letter unlike any other. With a few careful cuts and folds, it transformed into a miniature art gallery—complete with tiny framed artworks, a paper doorway labeled “This Way In”, and a humorous sign that read, “Leave your hats and umbrellas at home. I ain’t got time to check them.”

See his letter here: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/items/detail/alfred-joseph-frueh-to-giuliette-fanciulli-1915

In this episode, I explore that letter in all its dimensional brilliance—what it meant then, why it still captivates today, and how you can create your own “art gallery letter” that invites someone into your inner world. Whether you’re a paper artist, a letter-writer, or someone who loves tactile beauty, this episode offers a little magic and a full tutorial.

💌 Includes a full step-by-step guide for making your own four-walled pop-up letter, inspired by Frueh’s design.

Watch the Tutorial Here: https://youtu.be/HcAX5ut4TWg?si=JFn5NYILc_JrWKN7

Sources & Archival Materials Referenced in This Episode:

— Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Alfred J. Frueh Papers

— Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum: Spatial Writing exercise