What Is A Dead Letter?

The premise is simple: You are now dead. You just died. You don't know how it happened, you don't know what happens now. The only thing you know for certain is that your life is over.

This is your opportunity to write one letter to the world. You may say anything you want. You may use as many or as few words as necessary.

What will you say?

Consider that you have no more time to plan for anything, no more time to wait for anything, no more time. Period. All that you experienced in life to this moment is the sum of your entire life.

What will you say? What words do you want to leave behind? What lessons do you have to teach, and what regrets would you want to share?

What Is The Dead Letter Office?

The Dead Letter Office is a holding space.

When you submit your words to The Dead Letter Office database, your letter is added to a collection of Dead Letters of other people from around the world whom you will never meet. In fact, you may read a letter from someone you know, but you may never know it.

Once you've added your Dead Letter, the system here will insert it into the site at a random page. Dead Letters are not organized by any system. They are not sorted alphabetically by author, or by date of entry, or by topic. There is no catalog of Dead Letters to view.

You will receive an email from The Dead Letter Office informing you of your letter's permanent Web address. You may, of course, do anything you wish with this information. Give it to your friends and family to view your letter. Add a link on your own Web page to allow visitors to read your letter. Or print the address out, fold it up and keep it in your wallet, never telling anyone your Dead Letter exists—until the day you die.

We will not record your email address anywhere after sending your email to you. We cannot, therefore, send another copy if you lose the message. You will receive one message from The Dead Letter Office, and one message only.

When you add your Dead Letter, you have a choice to make—do you want your name attached to your words?

The only words that appear on your Dead Letter are the words you enter in the space provided. No other information—not the date, not your name, not your email address—will be attached by the Office. The goal is to allow you to be as perfectly honest and frank with your words as possible. If anonymity helps you reach that goal, your anonymity is assured.