The nonfiction letter offers students an opportunity to study a dying art while also gaining insights about people, places, and eras. Teaching students the value of letters teaches community, caring, and connection. Whereas reading great works of literature can and does provide insight into life's purpose and meaning, the nonfiction text of a letter shows what that looks like in the raw. Perhaps most revealing in the comparison/contrast study are the ways in which human psychology shows up in personal messages and why or how the format for the correspondence contributes to that. An email or a text message juxtaposed with a letter will reveal a great many insights related to language arts curriculum. Contemporary forms of communication are also showing up in fiction, but the letter has some history in novels, and it appears to remain a popular format today. If a study of letters as nonfiction precedes the epistolary novel, students are likely to come to the fiction with more complex and interesting questions.