Reading through them is addictive, like dipping into a bag of variously tempting assorted candies, knowing that the next one will always bring surprise and pleasure. Most of the letters are presented in both transcript and facsimile, giving the entries the textured quality of archival shadowboxes, arranged for quiet consideration. Draw!”) and practical cartooning advice (“Learn how to draw hands.”) It’s an unusually kind and lengthy letter to a young fan from John Kricfalusi, the creator of the cartoon “Ren and Stimpy.” It included sketches, encouragement (“Alright Bastard, let’s get to work. And it worked to an extent.” His first letter to go viral was found this way, several pages into the search results. He says, “In those days … I’d get a list of famous people and I’d type into Google, I don’t know, ‘Stan Laurel letter’ and I’d literally just search about Google to see what I could find. Starting out, however, there was much more digging involved.

These days, Usher receives a steady flow of submissions and has connections with a number of archivists.

The success of “Letters of Note” is certainly a tribute to the charm of written correspondence, but it’s also evidence of the value of a supportive spouse-Usher’s wife, who was working as a manager for a cosmetics company, supported the family alone for most of two years before his work became profitable-and the indispensability of tireless trench work. Over his shoulder, a wanly sunny English day was visible through a window propped open with two hardcover books. His face, trim and elfish in his author photo, was covered in a prodigious black beard. He lives in Cheshire, England, with his wife and his two young sons. A book version of “Letters of Note” was on the Sunday Times best-seller list for more than a month last year. A year later, his copywriting career had “plunged into silence” and he was collecting letters full time. Usher never found his inspiration for fresh stationery copy. Within months, the blog had a large, dedicated following.

A transcript appears in the post, along with a facsimile of the original letter, typewritten on beautiful, colorful stationery and featuring art from “Snow White.” Soon after, Usher posted a letter in which Mario Puzo asks Marlon Brando to be in the “The Godfather,” and then a cryptic note from the Zodiac killer to the San Francisco police. Within a few days of those first library visits, Usher started Letters of Note, a Web site that he describes as “a blog-based archive of fascinating correspondence.” His first post was a letter, sent in 1938, by Walt Disney Productions to a female job applicant, telling her that “women do not do any of the creative work” at the company. “The bug” is an obsession with written communication, which has more or less taken over his life.

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