A
female
age
,
anonymous
writes:Several years ago when clearing out a filing cabinet at work, my colleague found several very thick folders of love letters. They were between a married former colleague and a man with whom she was conducting an affair. My friend wanted to throw them into the bin, because she said they were private. I read a few and was so impressed by the beautiful poetic writing, that I felt it would be a crime to destroy them and read them all from the start until the end of the relationship. I just found them again a few days ago, where I had preserved them in a cupboard, and I was wondering whether it would be unethical to try to have them published. They are not erotic, but truly loving and beautifully written, by two people who have an excellent command of poetic language. I would not want the pair to be identified, but I would just love to share them with others.
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male
reader, anonymous, writes (9 November 2010): "Finders-Keepers"
Crass isn't it.
However, someone who discards or abandons something like this is at fault for it going missing and abandoning it.
Actually, you can publish these letters and nobody can do anything about it but sue you, and they won't win unless they have a lot of money and can keep suing you despite the lack of success (driving you to bankruptcy defending yourself).
However, there may be children and siblings and others who are still alive who could be terribly hurt by their publication. So, don't do it.
The person who wrote them betrayed another person and no matter how beautifully written they are, they in and of themselves, even as letters alone, are an act of betrayal just as the affair was.
This is because the energy that went into these letters could easily have been put into the marriage, or into the dissolution of the marriage, and instead went into betrayal of another person.
A
male
reader, anonymous, writes (23 October 2010): At the very least track the person down and ASK their effing permission.
If they say no, then your options are to wait until you are both dead and some archeologist digs them up in a thousand years and outs them on display in a museum somewhere.
Flynn 24
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A
reader, anonymous, writes (22 October 2010): I just want to make it clear that it doesn't matter if you change their names to hide their identify, or if you donated the proceeds of the book to charity. It is still not yours to do anything with, except throw them away or return to their rightful owner.
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A
reader, anonymous, writes (22 October 2010): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThank you for those comments. The person who left them behind, wrote the letters 30 years ago and retired many many years ago. I don't even know if they are still alive. I would not want to benefit financially, would not give any information which could identify them or cause them trouble. I just think they are beautifully written.
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A
reader, anonymous, writes (22 October 2010): I agree with Danielepew, these are not your letters to publish. To do so would be an invasion of privacy, which could end up with you in very large lawsuit. Therefore, this is not only an ethical issue, but a legal issue:
Consider this information about invasion of privacy:
First of all, your former colleague is considered a private figure. By law, private individuals are afforded much higher protection in cases such as invasion of privacy, libel and defamation of character.
The type of privacy actions you would be performing by publishing these letters is "publicity to private facts." One may be liable for invasion of privacy if one gives publicity to a matter concerning the private life of another and the matter publicized would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and is not of legitimate concern to the public.
Publishing this material only benefits you, as you would be getting the money for the purchase of the books. Thus, you would have appropriated these letters to your own use and benefit.
You would also most likely be liable for emotional harms caused by publication of these letters. People can sue for anything, including emotional distress. There is no doubt that a reasonable individual would find that your invasion of privacy by publishing these materials caused emotional harms. In fact, I think this action would probably fall under negligent infliction of emotional distress. A few jurisdictions in the U.S. recognize an action for negligent infliction of emotional distress where the defendant (you) should have realized that your conduct involved an unreasonable risk of causing distress, etc.
Now, this is an analysis of American invasion of privacy laws, but if my memory serves me right, Australia has privacy laws, too.
The best thing for you to do is to contact your colleague and mention that you have something of hers to return to her that she may have accidentally left in the office. You could even mail them to her if she wishes to have them back. Otherwise, these aren't yours, and you should not keep them.
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A
male
reader, Danielepew  +, writes (22 October 2010):
 This is their private correspondence, their own authorship, and, sorry to say it so bluntly, their own business.
Beyond that, maybe your publishing those private papers would lead to problems to those involved. Say the wife dumped the lover and is happy with her husband now. Would you be willing to give them trouble, and the masses plenty of gossip?
I think your friend was right. Those papers should have been burnt long ago.
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