Schocken Books acquired these letters from Felice Bauer in 1955, in addition to roughly half of Kafka's letters to Grete Bloch, Bauer's friend.

During the period of the correspondence Kafka and Bauer were engaged twice, and Kafka produced some of his most famous works, including The Metamorphosis, "In the Penal Colony", and his first attempts at writing The Trial.

Bulgarian novelist Elias Canetti wrote about the correspondence in Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice.

Through a reading of the letters along with sections of The Trial Canetti examined Kafka's struggle between a comfortable middle-class life and individual isolation.

In 1992, the English rock band The Cure released a song called A Letter to Elise on their album Wish, and later as a single.