Your books are still helping those who have remained
A heartfelt letter of thanks to the Queen of Crime
Happy birthday to this remarkable letter of thanks, written on 26th August 1963.
Nora Isabella Samuelli1 was born in Bucharest and worked for the United States Information Service until 1949, when she and her sister Annie were seized by Romania’s communist regime, accused of espionage, tortured and interrogated, and imprisoned2. They spent the next twelve years in harsh confinement before being ransomed out by relatives and exiled to the United States in 19613. Two years later, from her new home in Lake Placid, New York, Nora sent a letter of thanks to someone whose stories had carried her through those years and, in the process, lifted the spirits of hundreds of fellow prisoners.
Lake Placid
26th August 1963
Dear Mrs Christie,
On behalf of hundreds of political women prisoners in Rumania, I wish to express their grateful thanks and mine for having helped us escape, with the astute and sagacious cooperation of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, from the drabness of our prison days and the evil that surrounded us.
Although most of us would have been able to provide rich material to any writer, we felt disinclined to swap personal experiences for reasons of security, and were all the more eager to listen to your heroes’ adventures. Fortunately, I have a very retentive memory and was able to repeat to my cell-mates practically verbatim those of your works that I had read. At first, it was fairly difficult as I had to translate as I went along, but with time I acquired skill and in this way Miss Marples, Hercule Poirot and others of your characters became our friends. As year by year my cell-mates changed, they roamed with them throughout the various political prisons for women thus cheering many other despondent spirits.
Perhaps you don’t know that life in a Rumanian political prison is particularly harsh. Political prisoners are forbidden:
a) communication with their families, lawyers, etc.
b) parcels of any kind,
c) books, newspapers, magazines,
d) writing materials of any kind,
e) transistors, etc.During the 12 years I spent in prison I never saw a written page. My memory, however, could not be sealed up and thanks to it and to you my fellow-sufferers came to know and to love the works of Agatha Christie.
I am writing this letter not only to thank you most gratefully, but also to ask you to remember that although I am no longer there, your books are still helping those who have remained.
With warmest regards,
Yours very sincerely,
[Signed]
(Miss) Norah Samuelli
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In Romanian records she appears as Nora Samuelli. In her own 1963 letter to Agatha Christie, she signs “(Miss) Norah Samuelli.”
Nora was sentenced to 15 years; Annie to 20.
In 1965 the U.S. Congress passed private legislation granting Nora permanent residency and financial compensation for her lost years of service, formally recognising her ordeal.
That’s a great one that hits home on the value of books and letters.
This is the ultimate compliment that any writer might receive. Thank you for sharing this vivid and personal correspondence. It is truly remarkable and I will always remember it.