No. I'm not talking about Gary Halbert's heraldy letter that mailed to every human on the planet (at least once).
Nor any of the master works of Gary Bencivenga, Clayton Makepeace, John Carlton, Bruce Barton, Michel Fortin, or any other outstanding copywriters of today (or in history).

After seeing the fascinating tale on the History channel last night, I have to say the greatest sales letter ever written wasn't even written by a copywriter!

I'm talking about Captain James Riley who, shipwrecked in western Africa in 1815, had to write a letter to someone he didn't know... and didn't even know if it would be delivered to someone who could respond. He had to convince a stranger to pony up a tidy sum to save his life and the lives of his crew, who were held as slaves in the Sahara.

One shot. You can't choose your list. You have a one-pager... and only minutes to complete your task. Get it right and you live and are set free. Get it wrong and your throat will be surely be slit and your crew, near death, sold to yet another slave master.

Talk about "gun to your head" copywriting! This was the real thing.

We all have it easy. Just keeping it in perspective.

John

Interesting story.

I have tried to find the letter in the web, but I did not manage.

If anyone has the letter or a link to the letter please post it. I certainly would like to read it.

John,

Great post! But I gotta ask...WHAT HAPPENED?? I'm hangin' here.

Oh, did I leave that out? Sorry.

It worked. His slave master happened to bump into the employee of a British merchant, who (upon meeting the Captain and his men) came through with the loot. According to the History Channel's story, Riley went from 240 pounds down to 90 pounds during the entire ordeal.

He regained his strength and made it back to America. Abraham Lincoln even named Captain Riley's book as one of the most influencial he had ever read... accounting for his stance against slavery.

Hopefully they'll rerun the story.

John

I hope so too 'cause I missed it.

Here's a link to the show:

All Shows

Currently it's not scheduled for reairing anytime in the next three weeks.

Maybe if enough people click the link they'll get the hint plenty of people want to see it. Or not.

Andre