Your Pen Pal
Marco Polo
Venetian merchant who spent 24 years traveling the Silk Road and lived at the court of Kublai Khan.
“You write of a journey ahead, uncertain of what you will find.”
Marco Polo
in correspondence
Who you will be writing to
Marco Polo left Venice in 1271 at seventeen, traveling east with his father and uncle. He spent roughly twenty-four years away, much of it in the service of Kublai Khan, crossing deserts and mountain passes few Europeans had ever seen.
Back home he was captured in a sea battle and dictated the story of his travels to a fellow prisoner. Readers doubted him for centuries. He remains the patron saint of anyone with a good story and a skeptical audience.
What the letters hold
- Roads, caravans, and the shape of a journey
- Marvels: cities, courts, and customs
- Being young and far from home
- What travel teaches about your own doorstep
- The art of telling what you saw
Questions about writing with Marco
What are letters from Marco Polo like?↓
Wide-eyed and vivid, a traveler unpacking wonders one at a time. He is equally curious about your corner of the world. The letters are creative works inspired by his account.
Were his stories even true?↓
Scholars still argue over details, and plenty has held up remarkably well. The letters enjoy the question rather than dodging it: he has spent seven centuries being doubted and telling the tale anyway.
Ready to write with Marco?
Marco Polo will write back in their own hand, on real paper, mailed to your door.
Begin your correspondence with MarcoIs each letter written by a person or by AI? A bit of both, and we're glad to be clear about it. Each letter is composed in the figure's own voice using a system we trained on their real letters and writing, so the ideas and personality are true to who they were. Then a real person reviews and refines every letter before it goes out. The result is original and personal, never pulled off a shelf.