The first volume of letters written to Pestalozzi contains 713 letters written between 1764 and 1804 by illustrious correspondents such as Karl Viktor von Bonstetten, Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg, Hans Caspar Hirzel, Isaak Iselin, Johann Caspar Lavater, Anna Schulthess and 170 further writers, some of them unknown. The letters demonstrate Pestalozzi's literary success, economic failure and rise to Helvetian National educator. They provide everyday, cultural and political-historical insights into the varied lives and thoughts of families, parties, businesses, visionaries and reactionaries dur