The Catalogue
Four hundred and twelve letters, indexed by decade, by the weather on the day of writing, and by the distance the writer wished the words to travel.
Vol. CXII · Autumn Circular
An archive of words
that never left the desk.
Since 1904, the Bureau has accepted custody of letters composed in earnest and withheld from the post. We do not judge the silence between writer and addressee. We only keep the paper, the ink, and the small weather of the hand that wrote it.
A Specimen
This month we exhibit Letter No. 217, written on the back of a tide chart, dated the evening before a departure that did not occur.
About the Bureau
Our founding charter, the manner of intake, the rules of conservation, and the quiet obligations of a keeper who reads what was never meant to be read.
Intake Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays, between the second bell and the last. Letters may be slipped beneath the door at any hour; they will be numbered on the following morning.
The Bureau does not reply. The Bureau does not forward. The Bureau remembers.