Walter and Mary

The letters Walter and Mary Richardson wrote to each other between 1854 and 1877 depict, with often surprising frankness, a loving relationship between a man and a woman that was both mutual and enduring. This is a substantial body of lovely, detailed letters that not only form a valuable record of daily life at the time, but also offer a touching portrait of a very loving marriage. On reading them herself, many years after her parents' deaths, Henry Handel Richardson commented, "It was like reading a love story of 30 years ago."