Legacy Letters

There is a great deal of variety in the Legacy Letters that people write. They write to different audiences, at different times, on different subjects, in different styles, with different messages. But common to all is the motivation to provide a personal communication of value that is enduring and that serves as “something to be remembered by.”

At Wordsmith Associates, we believe strongly in connectedness and the importance of leaving such “footprints in the sand of time.” We believe that the recipients of Legacy Letters find great significance in the words that people share, while authors of Legacy Letters find the writing process to be enlightening and the final results to be a source of satisfaction and reward.

Acting on this belief, Wordsmith Associates offers relevant information and services to support Legacy Letter writers. For answers to common questions that people have, see “Learning about Legacy Letters” (below). For individuals looking for assistance, we offer the Wordsmith Legacy Letter Package of support.

We can make our lives sublime and, departing, leave behind us footprints in the sand of time. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life

Learning about Legacy Letters

What is a Legacy Letter?
The term Legacy Letter refers to a high-value communication created by an individual motivated to pass on life-learned thoughts & observations for the benefit of others. Usually completed later in life and often considered one’s “final words,” a Legacy Letter addresses matters that the writer considers important to document and share for all time. There is no legal requirement to prepare a Legacy Letter, and there is no set standard for what a Legacy Letter should look like or contain. Very simply, it is what one wants it to be.

Brief History of Legacy Letters
The original concept of a Legacy Letter (or Ethical Will, a synonymous term) traces to the Old Testament Book of Genesis (49:1-33), when Jacob created oral history in convening his sons, saying, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come…” The earliest written Legacy Letters date to almost 1000 years ago, when a tradition started among Jewish fathers who wrote Ethical Wills to convey instructions to their sons, detailing how to live a worthy life. Today, Legacy Letters are prepared with a variety of intentions by all sorts of people, cutting across age, gender, ethnicity, education, economic circumstance, and religious faith.

Benefits of Creating a Legacy Letter
Most Legacy Letter writers take considerable satisfaction from drawing on their own life experiences to provide something of value to people they care about, whether their words are used to convey love, tell stories, share insights, or express hopes for the future. In creating Legacy Letters, the writers also influence how they themselves will be known, understood, respected, and remembered, and the opportunity to extend one’s legacy in this way is an important motivation for many.

What Does a Legacy Letter Look Like
Because the design is up to the writer, a Legacy Letter can be short or long; it can be directed to one person or to many; it can be a single letter or multiple; it can be written all at once or over time; it can be a letter per se or something else altogether (such as an audio life story, a video compilation, or a hand-crafted scrapbook). In short, the writer has great flexibility in customizing the Legacy Letter in personal ways. That said, many Legacy Letters have features in common. For example, most are written, and they tend to be simple, straightforward, and relatively short – contained in 1-20 typewritten pages. In voice, Legacy Letters tend to be personal and authentic – more in the vein of sharing private thoughts than writing something for broader publication. Similarly, in tone, the writing tends to be positive, supportive, loving, and kind. (People usually do not see this as a vehicle for negative, critical, or controlling commentary.) For one example of a Legacy Letter, here’s a Barack Obama Legacy Letter, written on the eve of his first presidential inauguration.

Getting Started on a Legacy Letter
There are four high-level decisions that a writer needs to make at the outset of preparing a Legacy Letter: 1) why prepare it – PURPOSE, 2) who will receive it – AUDIENCE, 3) what the messages are – CONTENT, and 4) how the letter will be packaged and delivered – FORM. Once the writer makes these decisions, it is simply a matter of letting the thoughts flow naturally, organizing the material, and pulling it all together.

For Additional Support

A number of useful publications are available that provide additional details and samples of Legacy Letters – see the Reading List that appears elsewhere on this site. For more active help getting started on your Legacy Letter, consider the Wordsmith Legacy Letter Package.