Title:  What's this "dead letter" feature in Unix Pine?

Question:
Why does Unix Pine now tell me it is writing a dead letter when I cancel a
message? Is there a record of all canceled messages being stored?

Answer:
Unix Pine, when used on computers like Homer and Dante, but NOT WebPine, 
provides the service of saving a copy of any message that you
"^C"ancel to a file called "dead.letter."  It's useful if you ever cancel
something by accident. Then, you could just start the composition over and
use "^R"eadFile to pull in the "dead.letter" and be right where you left
off. 

The dead.letter file contains only the most recent message you canceled. 
The dead.letter file is stored on your own account where access is limited
just like access to your other files and folders.  So privacy is the same
for this file as for your other files. 

If you would like to have Pine save more canceled messages--not just the
most recent one, you can use Pine's "S"etup "C"onfig command to specify the
number of canceled messages to keep.  In the configuration screen, search
for this line

    dead-letter-files =

and use the "C"hange Value command to enter the number you'd like.  See "?
Help" at that point for more details.

If you'd rather not have copies of messages you cancel saved to a file,
you can use Pine's "S"etup "C"onfig command to change the behavior.  In
the configuration screen, search for this line

    [ ]  quell-dead-letter-on-cancel

and use the "X [Set/Unset]" command to turn it on.  See "? Help" at that
point for details.