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  1. Dictionary
    poison pen letter

    noun

    • 1. an anonymous letter that is libellous, abusive, or malicious.
  2. A poison pen letter (or poisoned pen letter [1]) is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive, or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously, often by employing the ransom note effect to avoid exposing the author's handwriting. Poison pen letters are usually composed and sent ...

  3. But she couldn't let the case go. The relationship between neighbours is based on the ‘recognition of each other's secrets’ explains Cockayne. So, when she came to work on a new project about poison pen letters, she knew she had to include the Littlehampton case. After all, 'shame and secrecy are a big component to poison pen letters'.

  4. Jan 8, 2024 · By Emily Cockayne. January 8, 2024. In the early twentieth century one genre of anonymous letter became so prominent it was given a name: the “poison penletter. Coined in America, the term “poison pen” was first used in ­1911 in a headline for an article in the Maryland Evening Post. The press popularized the term in Britain in the ...

    • Emily Cockayne
  5. Sep 3, 2023 · Unwanted attention: anonymous messages are known as poison pen letters. “Perhaps in a trance or coma, don’t bury yet – the other Curate was reported dead – some time since.”. This ...

    • Emily Cockayne
  6. Mar 10, 2020 · In December 1922, Angele Laval, the thirty-seven year old daughter of a comfortably circumstanced shoemaker’s widow, was arrested for writing the letters and charged with defamation. Although Angele denied guilt, she was convicted, fined and sentenced to a term of penal servitude. Several suicides had resulted from the letters, including that ...

    • Curtis Evans
  7. May 23, 2024 · The “poison” in the term refers to the often inflammatory, vitriolic contents of the letter. Poison pen letters will typically hammer at a weak point in the addressee, and they may include falsehoods or abusive statements which are intended to spark a reaction. On the more mild scale, poison pen letters can be merely malicious, and ...

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  9. Sep 21, 2023 · Poison pen letters, denounced in 1928 by a leading criminologist as “cowardly, treacherous, vile things”, appear to have been fuelled by envy, leading judges often to wrongfoot themselves by ...