Poison pen letter

{{Short description|Malicious letter, usually anonymous}}

{{other uses|Poison Pen (disambiguation)}}

File:Poison pen.jpg. The German text says: "You ... ass. We are glad not to have you at our school any longer." The letter also contained the mask pictured here.]]

A poison pen letter (or poisoned pen letter{{cite news

|newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1915/12/02/archives/poisoned-pen-traced-to-3-insane-women-letters-to-girls-about-to-be.html

|title=POISONED PEN TRACED TO 3 INSANE WOMEN; Letters to Girls About to be Married Written in Or Near Middletown Asylum.

|date=December 2, 1915

|access-date=January 17, 2021

|archive-date=January 22, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122111952/https://www.nytimes.com/1915/12/02/archives/poisoned-pen-traced-to-3-insane-women-letters-to-girls-about-to-be.html

|url-status=live

}}) is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive, or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously, often by employing the ransom note effect to avoid exposing the author's handwriting. Poison pen letters are usually composed and sent to upset the recipient,{{cite news |title=Has the anonymous author of the infamous Circleville letters been unmasked? |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/circleville-letters-author-unmask/ |work=www.cbsnews.com |date=25 December 2022}} and differ from blackmail, which is intended to obtain something from the recipient. The reference to poison is figurative rather than literal.

In the United Kingdom, Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 covers most cases of poison pen letters.{{cite web|url=http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/a_to_c/communications_offences/#an13|title=Communications Offences: Legal Guidance|date=7 November 2013|publisher=Crown Prosecution Service|access-date=10 December 2013|archive-date=13 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213054722/http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/a_to_c/communications_offences/#an13|url-status=live}}