San Francisco, California
December 16, 2000

Dear Readers,

My friend Matt Bear discovered this prizeamong the letters sent to a woodworking magazine where he used to work, a job where he couldn’t resist designing sleek architectonic furniture with secret drawers instead of the birdhouse patterns the readers actually wanted.

With this letter my guest-editorship of Open Letters comes to an end. When Paul Tough first proposed this collaboration a few weeks ago, I was immediately excited by the prospect of sharing my collection with Open Letters readers. When it dawned on me that I would also have to write my own editor’s letters, my heart sunk a little. I’ve never done any public writing and the idea of editorializing on Other People’s Mail seemed contrary to the spirit of the zine. I always considered O.P.M. to be a collaborative project between me, my friends and acquaintances, and the strangers who authored its contents; my role as editor seemed incidental to the final product. The zine never included any editorial content or any contextual information aside from short captions identifying where each item was found.

As it turns out, I’ve enjoyed preparing the editor’s letters at least as much as I enjoyed selecting the found letters for the week. I’ve had a chance to remember how these letters were collected and reflect on why the zine still means more to me than a post-adolescent joke. In the process of gathering comments from some of the people who helped create O.P.M., and in sharing a few found letters with people who’ve never come across the zine before, I’ve realized why that extra file cabinet full of debris is still worth keeping.

My friend James has promised to help reinvent Other People’s Mail as a web project with a site of its own, and we’re both eager to get issue #5 out soon. I don’t have any back issues, and I’m not sure I’ll distribute a print version of any future issues, but I am planning to run off a small batch of this next issue for Open Letters readers in celebration of this week of collaboration. If you would like a copy of O.P.M. #5, email me at otherpeoplesmail@lycos.com within the next week. In return for the zine, you must send me some piece of anonymous writing for my collection, something interesting, not just someone else’s gum wrapper or an abandoned ATM receipt. Three dollars would also be okay, but not as good. James and I should be able to send copies out by the beginning of January, if not earlier. Oh, and don’t forget, an address would help nicely.

Loads of thanks to Wendy B., Lisa Thorpe, Daniel Arp, James Nestor, John Hodgman, D.C., and Matt Bear for providing found letters and their own insights; to Todd Ledford for co-producing the zine in years past; to Susan Burton for allowing Danny and Brandi to speak for themselves through their handwriting; to Paul Tough for inviting Other People’s Mail to crossbreed with Open Letters and for keeping extra late hours to make it possible. Lastly, thanks to you, the readers, especially those who have taken the time to send thoughtful comments which helped to make my guest-editorship at Open Letters the gratifying experience it has been.

Sincerely,

Abby Bridge