Boston Public Library Hosts Talk on Advice’s History

The Boston Public Library is hosting a free June 30 event tying together centuries of relationship advice—from 1600s love letters to the TELL-A-BOOTH—with writers Meredith Goldstein and historian Mary Beth Norton.

On a night when the Boston Public Library usually feels like a quiet place to look things up, it’s about to turn into something else entirely: a conversation about why people have always turned to strangers for help—and how that help has changed.

The library is hosting “The History of Advice, From Columns to the TELL-A-BOOTH, with Meredith Goldstein and Mary Beth Norton” on June 30 at 6 p.m. The event is free, and the public can sign up to attend.

Goldstein will be there. and Norton—who wrote “I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer: Letters on Love & Marriage from the World’s First Personal Advice Column”—will bring the historical lens. The discussion is set to span advice from the 1600s to now. with Norton’s book tracing the path of love-and-marriage letters that once answered people’s questions long before modern phone booths and advice podcasts existed.

In the lead-up to the talk, Goldstein points out that even back then, people weren’t holding back about their in-laws.

The newsletter also tees up other Love Letters pieces for anyone who wants to sink deeper into the same theme: advice. timing. and the messy ways people find each other. Goldstein mentions a Love Letters explainer on the phone booth that included a long message from a sports fan visiting Boston—one filled with both affection and frustration about the Knicks. She says she asked for help answering the sports-love question in the column and shared what Dan Shaughnessy offered as the Knicks’ season continues.

There’s more relationship-gossip energy, too. Goldstein writes about “Dinner With Cupid,” The Boston Globe’s matchmaking column, describing it as “often hilarious” while noting that pairings can be hit or miss. She says she especially likes when editors set people up who end up becoming friends.

Goldstein also revisits a Love Letters episode connected to the Apple series “Widow’s Bay.” She notes that when Jeff Hiller recorded the episode, he happened to be in town filming the Apple show. The episode and the show share the same title—“Widow’s Bay.”

Then comes a more intimate question about whether love should interrupt a plan. Goldstein mentions a letter writer who met someone right before moving. and asks what to do when a new connection appears at the last minute. She says she advised the letter writer to stick around for a bit, adding that most commenters disagreed.

For readers who want to participate in the same anonymous back-and-forth, Goldstein reiterates that people can send in their own anonymous relationship letters by clicking a box on the Love Letters site.

The newsletter closes with a look at a recent WBUR “Yelling Bee” during the WBUR Festival, where it was a spelling bee “with yelling.” Goldstein says she was eliminated on the first word—“unanimous”—and calls it “a pretty easy word,” adding that she typed it without having to think.

In the photo shared, lawyer and former Massachusetts First Lady Diane Patrick won first place. “Top Chef” contestant Laurence Louie came in second; Goldstein says he did know how to spell “julienne.” At the right is Candice Springer. associate director of WBUR CitySpace. who is described as laughing with Goldstein “but not at” her.

The June 30 program at the Boston Public Library offers a single through-line—advice has always existed, but the forms change. What people want from it. though. sounds strangely familiar: someone to answer back. even when the question is uncomfortable. even when the timing is wrong. and even when the in-laws are already part of the story.

Boston Public Library TELL-A-BOOTH Meredith Goldstein Mary Beth Norton Love Letters relationship advice in-laws Widow’s Bay WBUR Yelling Bee