What is this?

The Collected Letters of John Carlton is a two-volume swipe file John Carlton put together in 2002 — 35 of his mailed sales letters and magazine ads, each introduced with his own commentary about the story and the strategy behind it. It was sold privately and passed around like contraband. Most working copywriters have heard of it; almost none have read it.

This archive is the whole thing — every page, free.

How it was digitized

Every page was rendered from the original scans, transcribed word-for-word, then independently proofread against the original page images — twice, by different reviewers, with special attention to prices, phone numbers and typos (the typos are part of the artifact; they stay). Page images were restored for readability, and the untouched raw scan of every page is one click away. Where a page can't be honestly re-typeset — envelopes, order-form coupons, photo-heavy magazine ads — the archive shows you the scan itself.

As John says in his introduction: "These glitches are irrelevant. It is the words you're after. That's where the gold lies."

Rights

All letters and commentary are © 2002 John S. Carlton. This is a free archival edition made out of respect for the work. If you are John or Marketing Rebel and want anything changed or taken down, say the word and it's done.

Colophon

Compiled by @coleschfr. Static site, no tracking, no email gate, no paywall. Sibling project: Agora's Big Black Book.