Missives as Literary Artefacts: I K Sharma’s Unique Work

Abstract

Speech has gained the prestige of literature long ago with the addresses of icons like Abraham
Lincoln of Gettysburg Address, Swami Vivekananda’s speech in the Parliament of Religions and
Jawaharlal Nehru’s memorable oration Tryst with Destiny. Letter writing is also a genre of
literature. As students we read Hazliit’s letter to his son and Johnson’s letter to Lord
Chesterfield. We also read Nehru’s ‘Letters from a Father to his Daughter’ as a piece of great
writing, as literature. Today when the art of letter writing is a dying practice, it is indeed
praiseworthy to elevate letters to a literary genre which is worthy of many ramifications.
I.K.Sharma’s A Treasure Island of Letters belongs to the genre which persists as long as readers
continue their practice. This treasure contains letters written by poets, academicians and
intellectuals in high positions. The thrust however is on poetry, its practice and performance. Dr
Sharma, an octogenarian forging ahead, is a poet of eminence and translator too of renown. He
added another feather to his cap by coming up with this extraordinary and uncommon book on
epistles and missives. These can be termed belles letters for letters have many connotations –
love letters to missives, apart from billet-doux, jokingly, love letters.
The book is a collection of ninety three letters including eight in Hindi and thirteen from abroad
received by the author in a period of about four decades from people of eminence and
importance. They have relevance to matters literary. Many of them bring into relief the traits of
litterateurs in modernity, true, real or dubious. Some of them are electrifying and intriguing with
the writers’ personalities and eminence. They write about, among other things, literature, literary
criticism and literary appreciation mixed with their experiences, joyful and sometimes grim
providing exemplary reading material. Most of the letters are from academics and those stationed
in high positions. The author in his wisdom gives the freedom to the readers to draw their own
conclusions about things past.