Well before there was a country called Canada, newcomers to this land were writing loving letters to one another and sending them via sleigh and boat, cart and stagecoach. The earliest one in this book is dated 1786, written in ornate prose by William Smith, the chief justice of Quebec, to his wife stuck in the United States. In the 137 years since Confederation, kinfolk, friends, old married couples, and especially young lovers have declared on paper...