These 273 letters, collected over the last twelve years by Lucien Goldschmidt and Herbert Schimmel, illuminate a hitherto little-known side of Lautrec's personality his close relationship with his family. The letters span his life from 1871, when he was six
and a half, to a few months before his death in 1901 and the picture thus revealed is far from the conventional idea of Lautrec, the alcoholic and degenerate, if artistically genial, cripple.

The earliest letters send New Year's and Nameday greetings to his godmother, grandmother and relatives, but are no mere expressions of formal good wishes they bubble with boyish high spirits and are frequently illustrated with lively sketches.
His early studies as an art student in Paris are vividly described, and his growing popularity as an illustrator and a graphic designer emerges. He tells of his visits to the art world in London and Brussels, of his holidays at Taussat and in Spain and of his fishing expeditions. Through all the letters flows a stream of tender concern for his mother's health and the well-being of his family. Indeed his close family ties are apparent right up to his premature death.
The 35 letters by his mother's maid, Berthe Sarrazin, who looked after him just before he was interned throw a completely new light on his illness and clarify a certain number of obscure points as to his alleged orgies and Bohemian life.