Should one capitalise the first word in the body of a letter?

Question

I think that most people will answer the question in the title with 'yes', and, until recently, I was one of them.  However, my wife, who is not a native English speaker, does not do this; and, when I was about to correct her, it occurred to me that in fact her approach is the more logical.  After all, if it were all on one line, I would write "Dear recipient, this is a letter to you." and not "Dear recipient, This is a letter to you."; and I am unconvinced that the interpolation of a line break after the comma should change anything.

There being no governing body for English, inevitably the natural way to answer is "that's the way it's usually done, and logic can go hang", so let me ask a more precise version of this question:  does any standard reference book require, forbid, or otherwise discuss this practice?  I went Googling, but without luck.

livresque · Accepted Answer

From Good English Form Book in Business Letter Writing, 1904 another source dictates (p. 17):

Begin every sentence, line of poetry, or formal quotation with a capital.  NEVER USE A CAPITAL LETTER UNLESS YOU HAVE A REASON FOR IT.

The book is accessible for free at archive.org with ample exercises and examples.  I am concerned that these two authorities might offer only for preference of style, but it is the same in regards to capitalization after a greeting in the body of a letter.
In a comment, EdwinAshworth mentioned these sources as well, which may prove more helpful, so I include:

Letter Writing Guide, Reading Rockets, and the Centre for Academic Success (which capitalises a phrase!) all use/require the capitalise-the-first-word-after-the-salutation convention.

Katherine · Answer

Dear Recipient is a salutation, it is not part of the following text.  Thus, it is set off above the content of the letter and followed by a comma in less formal communication.

In business formatting, the salutation (e.g., Dear Sir) is followed by a colon.

Edie Booth · Answer

I was taught this in engish class, " Dear Sally, How are you? "  This is correct to me.

Debbie Risberg · Answer

I learned in all of my editing classes and The Chicago Manual of Style that the word following a salutation is NOT capitalized. I no longer have my manual, unfortunately, and can't find the rule in the online manual. Also, many people above are putting commas outside of quotes; they go inside quotes, as do periods. Semicolons and colons go outside of quotes.

Answered by Debbie Risberg on April 29, 2021

Matthew Tinker · Answer

I remember having been taught (in my English class in school in Wales) that as there was a comma after the persons name, the the first letter of the first line of the first paragraph was not capitalised as it came after a comma.

Answered by Matthew Tinker on April 29, 2021

Should one capitalise the first word in the body of a letter?

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