Funny Letters from Famous People

Funny Letters from Famous People
by Charles Osgood

Funny Letters from Famous People
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $8.23
You Save: $6.77 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Charles Osgood
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-10-12
ISBN: 0767911768
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Broadway

Book Reviews of Funny Letters from Famous People

Book Review: A Gold Mine Of Humorous Letters
Summary: 5 Stars


There is always something audacious about reading other people's letters. You have the feeling that you are secretly looking into the soul and mind of the letter writer without his or her knowledge.
Unfortunately, in today's age of emails, television, and every other modern day distraction, we have little time or the patience for the letter writing that was quite prevalent years ago.
Luckily for us, many letters written by famous people have been saved, providing a virtual gold mine of information pertaining to these individuals. Gleaning through these letters, you will also discover a great deal of humor as evidenced in Charles Osgood's collection Funny Letters From Famous People.

One of the difficulties of publishing this kind of a book is to decipher hundreds of letters before deciding which ones to include in a book that has as its principal objective humor.
Osgood, who is the anchorperson of CBS News Sunday Morning, succeeds admirably in his presentation of letters written by politicians, authors, artists and show business personalities.
We can't help but have a good chuckle reading the letters of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Groucho Marx, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Eugene O'Neill, Charles Dickens, and many more.
As an example, an extract taken from one of Chopin's letters to his friend Julien Fontana pertaining to Chopin's health describes how awful he feels after contacting a cold and goes onto to say that three doctors examined him. The first doctor said he was going to die, the second indicated that he was actually dying and the third told him he was dead already.
In another letter, American short story writer and novelist John Cheever and his wife Mary were asked by their friend Josephine Herbst to take care of her cat Delmore. After several years, Cheevers writes to his friend to recount his experiences with the cat. He tells of how the cat used the Kleenex box as a place to "dump a load," and unfortunately for Cheevers, who had a cold at the time, used one of the tissues to wipe his nose. Cheevers goes on to recount that he took Delmore to the kitchen door and dropkicked him into the clothes yard. I hope animal rights activists will not come knocking on Cheevers' door!

This is a wonderful collection of humorous letters to meander through, as it adheres to the often -quoted adage "laughter is the best medicine."

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com


Summary of Funny Letters from Famous People

In this humorous collection of celebrity wit, acclaimed broadcaster and humorist Charles Osgood offers witticisms penned by luminaries ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Andy Rooney.

Known for his clever commentary and witty radio-show rhymes, Charles Osgood here selects and introduces a collection of hilarious correspondence from some of our best-loved politicians, authors, and stars of the stage and screen. Funny Letters from Famous People delivers rib-tickling communications from the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Flannery O?Connor, S. J. Perelman, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, John Cheever and dozens more.
Providing an entertaining look at celebrated lives, Osgood lets us glimpse Mark Twain squabbling with the gas company, Dwight D. Eisenhower kvetching to Mamie about Patton, and radio personality Fred Allen desperately seeking logic from his insurance carrier in one of comedy?s most amusing epistles.
Sprinkled throughout with Osgood?s own humorous quips, Funny Letters from Famous People is a delightful compendium of clever letter writing at its side-splitting best.

Humor Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Humor Books
Snuff ImageSnuff
by Chuck Palahniuk
Anchor; Published: 2009-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.95
Don't Eat This Book ImageDon't Eat This Book
by Morgan Spurlock
Penguin Audio; Published: 2005-05-19; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $5.35
Price in other shops: $29.95
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell ImageI Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
by Tucker Max
Penguin; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
The Saber-Tooth Curriculum ImageThe Saber-Tooth Curriculum
by J.Abner Peddiwell
Mcgraw-Hill; Published: 1959-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Miss America ImageMiss America
by Howard Stern
It Books; Published: 2010-08-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.71
Price in other shops: $16.99
101 Places Not to See Before You Die Image101 Places Not to See Before You Die
by Catherine Price
Harper Perennial; Published: 2010-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.59
Price in other shops: $13.99
My Life and Hard Times (Perennial Classics) ImageMy Life and Hard Times (Perennial Classics)
by James Thurber
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 1999-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.68
Price in other shops: $11.99
Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels) ImageEqual Rites: A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels)
by Terry Pratchett
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.92
Price in other shops: $13.95
Mirth of a Nation: Audio Companion, Fellow Traveler and Friend for Life--Laff Tracks From America's Most Trusted Humor Anthology ImageMirth of a Nation: Audio Companion, Fellow Traveler and Friend for Life--Laff Tracks From America's Most Trusted Humor Anthology
by Michael J. Rosen
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-11-12; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $4.51
Price in other shops: $29.95
Red, White & Liberal ImageRed, White & Liberal
by Alan Colmes
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-10-28; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $25.95
Similar Books and other products
The Book of General Ignorance ImageThe Book of General Ignorance
by John Mitchinson, John Lloyd
Crown Archetype; Published: 2007-08-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.23
Price in other shops: $21.00
Legends: Women Who Have Changed the World Through the Eyes of Great Women Writers ImageLegends: Women Who Have Changed the World Through the Eyes of Great Women Writers
by John Miller
New World Library; Published: 2001-09-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.63
Price in other shops: $21.95
War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars ImageWar Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars
by Andrew Carroll
Scribner; Published: 2002-04-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.85
Price in other shops: $18.95
Letters from a Nut ImageLetters from a Nut
by Ted L. Nancy
It Books; Published: 2001-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.18
Price in other shops: $16.99
Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children ImagePosterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children
by Dorie McCullough Lawson
Doubleday; Published: 2004-04-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops: $24.95
Women's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present ImageWomen's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 2008-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops: $18.00
Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children ImagePosterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children
by Dorie McCullough Lawson
Anchor; Published: 2008-04-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.11
Price in other shops: $14.95
Letters of a Nation ImageLetters of a Nation
by Andrew Carroll
Broadway; Published: 1999-01-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.22
Price in other shops: $16.95
A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors ImageA Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors
by Michael Farquhar
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.88
Price in other shops: $16.00
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House, A: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trail ImageFunny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House, A: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities From the Presidential Campaign Trail
by Charles Osgood
Hyperion; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.51
Price in other shops: $23.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories