Love letters have long been a cherished form of emotional expression, spanning centuries and cultures.
Letters of love dating back to the 1500s were recorded between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. The exchange of affection was scribbled beneath significant illuminations in the “Book of Hours,” produced in 1528, according to BBC.
A collection of love letters from history’s most iconic figures reveals the depth of emotion and timeless expressions of affection.
Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or seeking inspiration for your own letters, these beautifully crafted words offer more than just sentiment — they serve as a window into the complexities of love and devotion.
A collection of love letters from history’s most iconic figures
Historical love letters according to Glamour, Invaluable and Country Living:
Napoleon to Joséphine
Written in: the 1790s.
Napoleon Bonaparte expressed a soft side of himself in letters to his wife, Josephine — who was six years older than him.
Though he divorced her after her inability to bear children, their correspondence continued for years, revealing a complex love beyond politics, according to Time.
Notable quote per Invaluable: “A few days ago I thought I loved you; but since I last saw you I feel I love you a thousand times more. All the time I have known you, I adore you more each day; that just shows how wrong was La Bruyére’s maxim that love comes all at once. Everything in nature has its own life and different stages of growth. I beg you, let me see some of your faults: be less beautiful, less graceful, less kind, less good.”
Vladimir Nabokov to Vera Nabokov
Written in: 1924.
Vladimir Nabokov is known as “one of the greatest writers of the 20th century,” according to the Poetry Foundation. Nabokov was married to Vera for 52 years and dedicated nearly every book he wrote to her.
She not only inspired his works, but saved “Lolita” from the trash after Nabokov attempted to discard it, according to The New Yorker.
Notable quote per Glamour: “My delightful, my love, my life, I don’t understand anything: how can you not be with me? I’m so infinitely used to you that I now feel myself lost and empty: without you, my soul. You turn my life into something light, amazing, rainbowed — you put a glint of happiness on everything — always different: sometimes you can be smoky-pink, downy, sometimes dark, winged — and I don’t know when I love your eyes more — when they are open or shut … Today I can’t write about anything except my longing for you."
Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor
Written in: 1964.
On the set of “Cleopatra,” Richard Burton fell for Elizabeth Taylor, igniting one of Hollywood’s most passionate, tumultuous love stories, according to Invaluable.
Notable quote per Invaluable: “My blind eyes are desperately waiting for the sight of you. You don’t realise of course, E.B., how fascinatingly beautiful you have always been, and how strangely you have acquired an added and special and dangerous loveliness.”
Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald
Written in: 1930.
Zelda Fitzgerald captivated F. Scott Fitzgerald, the celebrated author of “The Great Gatsby,” according to Invaluable.
They left a legacy of their passionate, turbulent marriage, marked by love through their written words.
Notable quote per Invaluable: “Darling — I love these velvet nights. I’ve never been able to decide whether the night was a bitter enemie or a ‘grand patron’ — or whether I love you most in the eternal classic half-lights where it blends with day or in the full religious fan-fare of mid-night or perhaps in the lux of noon.”
Patti Smith to Robert Mapplethorpe
Written in: 1989.
Robert Mapplethorpe, the renowned photographer, found both love and friendship with punk legend Patti Smith, according to Invaluable.
United by their struggles as artists living in New York City, their brief romance endured beyond its end, with Smith writing this letter after the death of Mapplethorpe.
Notable quote, per Invaluable: “The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off, too. But before I did, it occured to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all your work, you are still your most beautiful. The most beautiful work of all. Patti”
Orson Welles to Rita Hayworth
Written in: the 1940s.
Orson Welles, the legendary director and actor, met Rita Hayworth at Columbia Studios while shooting “Cover Girl,” according to Wellesnet.
Their relationship was marked by passion. The letters were kept in Hayworth’s makeup case, per Wellesnet.
Notable quote, per Country Living: “I suppose most of us are lonely in this big world, but we must fall tremendously in love to find it out. The cure is the discovery of our need for company — I mean company in the very special sense we’ve come to understand since we happened to each other — you and I. The pleasures of human experience are emptied away without that companionship — now that I’ve known it; without it joy is just an unendurable as sorrow. You are my life — my very life.”
Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash
Written in: 1994.
Johnny Cash and June Carter, iconic in country music, shared a love that resonated far beyond their music.
Their bond remains legendary, forever etched in history as one of the genre’s most influential couples, according to Country Living.
Notable quote, per Country Living: “We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each others minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted. But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me.You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence.”
Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera
Written in: the 1940s.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s love was a fierce, tumultuous force, marked by intense passion.
The relationship between the two artists was undeniably complex, but it left a lasting imprint, according to Invaluable.
Notable quote, per Invaluable: “Nothing compares to your hands, nothing like the green-gold of your eyes. My body is filled with you for days and days. You are the mirror of the night. The violent flash of lightning. The dampness of the earth. The hollow of your armpits is my shelter. My fingers touch your blood. All my joy is to feel life spring from your flower-fountain that mine keeps to fill all the paths of my nerves which are yours.”
Mark Twain to Olivia Langdon
Written in: 1869.
Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon’s marriage was a quiet, enduring partnership. Though very different, they found balance within one another.
“The aspiring author knew Olivia Langdon was the one when he first laid eyes on a photograph of her,” according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Notable quote, per Country Living: “Out of the depths of my happy heart wells a great tide of love and prayer for this priceless treasure that is confined to my life-long keeping.
“You cannot see its intangible waves as they flow towards you, darling, but in these lines you will hear, as it were, the distant beating of the surf.”