Sask. historians say collection of hundreds of WW II love letters offers glimpse into ‘human sides of history’ | CBC News

A trove of newly unearthed wartime love letters warming hearts more than 80 years after the last stamp was licked is a snail mail reminder of the perseverance of love just in time for Valentine’s Day, according to Saskatchewan historians.

Former U.S. Air Corps private Henry Lever wrote to his wife Florence Lever in Massachusetts more than 500 times from 1943 to 1945, while he was stationed abroad during the Second World War. Military records show Lever, a clerk, was 28 when he enlisted in February 1941.

Inside the letters addressed to “Dearest Florence,” Lever shares mundane details and moments of joy, according to Jay Preseau, the Sudbury, Ont., antiques dealer who currently has the set.

“A lot of the letters are actually quite heartwarming. There was one I was reading where … he had actually found some puppies for sale, and he was telling his wife that, ‘Oh, I wish that we could bring these home, they’re so adorable,” said Preseau.

On Tuesday, Preseau told CBC it is the largest collection he has ever come across, by far.

“He was pretty much writing home to his wife almost every day, which is pretty cool to think about,” said Preseau.

The collectible dealer thought the letters might make sweet Valentine’s Day gifts for collectors and listed them for sale individually in cities across North America, including Saskatoon.

However, after more than 500 comments on Preseau’s for-sale post in a United States-based Facebook group begged him to sell the collection as a whole, he’s selling the set to a Wisconsin woman who said it feels like “they’re buying me.”

Colleen Baier said she is recently divorced and seeing the letters posted in that group offered her “a glimmer of hope” she hadn’t realized she needed.

“It’s still having that hope — especially in the social media world — of just that true love story, back then it was you and that person against the world,” Baier told CBC on Tuesday. 

“Like, you’ve been married for 25 years and that’s coming to an end. But that doesn’t mean that there is not love out there and there’s not hope for another one.”

Baier said she plans to organize and publicly document all the letters online, and has started an Instagram account called “Histories Love Letter.”

“I don’t necessarily know what I’m going to do or how I’m going to do it… but I think that it’s definitely a story that needs to be shared and preserved,” said Baier.

‘Everybody loves a good love story’: Baier

As social media and technological advances make communication less concrete, local historians say the preserved letters offer a physical reminder to hopeful romantics that love, while difficult, can persevere.

“Here’s evidence of a couple that survived, presumably through extremely trying times, not just long distance, but the uncertainties of war,” said Dawn Flood, an associate history professor at Campion College at the University of Regina.

“It’s just a point of optimism … that no matter when they existed or how they existed, that love can persist through anything.”

After Lever returned from the war, the couple had a “devoted” marriage filled with children and grandchildren that lasted until Lever passed away in his late 90s in 2011, followed by “beloved” Florence in 2012, according to U.S. military records and obituaries reviewed by CBC News.

Flood and University of Saskatchewan professor emeritus James Pitsula said the letters also offer a glimpse into the “human sides of history.”

Pitsula, who studied letters from Canadian soldiers to their loved ones in Saskatchewan to research his book on the province during the First World War, said love letters are often fascinating for present day audiences who already know the historical context.

“People are making decisions and they are taking chances … just because of the situation they’re in,” he said.

“That produces a certain tension and a certain suspense that you might not find in a love story ordinarily.”

Baier said she hopes preserving the letters will help spread an optimistic message — no postage required.

“Everybody loves a good love story, and combined with the history, I think it’s one of those one-in-a-million things,” she said.