Northern France · 10 May 1915
John McCrae to his mother
“The general impression in my mind is of a nightmare.”
From Macphail, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (1919)
Founding members waitlist
A real letter from Canadian history, in your mailbox every week.
John McCrae writing home from Ypres. A private the week of Vimy. Papineau and Bourassa arguing over what Canada owed the Empire. Twelve real letters, reproduced as they were written, mailed one a week.
One letter a week, for twelve weeks.
1
We mail one letter a week
Twelve weeks, twelve letters, each in its own envelope with a real Canadian stamp.
2
Reproduced as it was written
Every word the writer wrote, on paper that matches the original.
3
Read it with your coffee
On the back: who wrote it, who received it, and what happened next.
The collection
The Soul of Canada: letters from the Great War
It opens with John McCrae writing to his mother after Ypres. It runs through the argument between Talbot Papineau and Henri Bourassa over what Canada owed the Empire, and the soldiers who wrote home from Vimy saying, for the first time, that they were proud to be Canadian. It ends the way the war did, with many of the men who wrote them gone and a country that had grown up.
In the Field, France · 21 March 1916
Talbot Papineau to Henri Bourassa
“…as I write, French and English-Canadians are fighting and dying side by side.”
Open letter, 1916. McGill University Library
Somewhere in France · 13 April 1917
Pte. Cecil Minary to his sister Annie
“…you will be proud to [be] able to call yourself a Canadian.”
Original at the Wawanesa Museum, Manitoba
The paper
Made to look the way it did.
Every word the writer wrote, reproduced as it was written, on paper that matches the original, with the letterhead redrawn the way it looked in 1917. The envelope carries a real Canadian stamp chosen for that letter, addressed by hand and cancelled at the post office.
Pictured: Pte. Cecil Minary to his sister Annie, 13 April 1917. Original at the Wawanesa Museum, Manitoba. Artist's rendering. First letters ship January 2027.
Made for giving
For the parent who has everything. For the friend who moved away.
You are not giving them a box. You are giving them twelve Tuesdays with something worth opening. It arrives, it sits on the table, it gets read. Then the next one comes, and they find they have been waiting for it.
- We mail it to them. Anywhere in Canada or the United States.
- Your note goes in the first envelope. Written out by hand, in ours.
- You pick the first day. A birthday, an anniversary, or a Tuesday that needs it. First letters mail from January 2027.
- Order by 1 December for Christmas. They get a card before Christmas telling them what is coming.
- Founding members lock in the launch price, and get a numbered, hand-cancelled first envelope.
Real letters, from real archives
Every letter is the real thing: the words someone actually wrote, found in a public archive or a family's keeping, and reproduced with permission where it is needed. We name the source on the back of every one.
- Library and Archives Canada
- Canadian War Museum
- McGill University Library
- Wawanesa Museum
Things people ask
- What will it cost?
- We expect CAD 89 to 129 for the twelve-letter collection. The price is set before pre-orders open on 11 November. Founding members lock in the launch price.
- When does the first letter ship?
- Founding members can order from Remembrance Day, 11 November 2026. Gifts arrive as a card before Christmas, and the first letter mails in January 2027.
- Where do you ship?
- Canada and the United States to start. If you are somewhere else, tell us; we will add countries when enough people ask.
- Is there a French edition?
- Not at launch. If you would want one, tell us when you join. Enough interest makes it the next thing we make.
- What if they don't like it?
- We refund every letter that has not shipped. No questions. And if we do not go ahead with production, every pre-order is refunded in full.
- Who chooses the letters?
- We do, with a historian checking each collection. Every letter is the writer's own words, and we name where the original is kept.
A real letter from Canadian history, in your mailbox every week.
Join the list. Share your link, move up the list: three friends who join through it guarantee you a place in the first batch.