Does life go on beyond the grave? With the recent surge in popularity of topics focused on life after death, Letters from the Afterlife, originally published in 1914 under another title, takes up this age-old question from a unique perspective - that of a man who has undergone ''the great change'' and has crossed the threshold we call death. Written through the hand of Elsa Barker, an established author in her own right, Letters presents a kind of ''astral travelogue'' that describes - often eloquently, sometimes humorously - life in the ''invisible'' world. David Patterson Hatch, a former judge, a writer of books, and a ''profound student of philosophy,'' explains his motivation for writing the letters: ''This is a materialistic age. A large percentage of men and women have no real interest in the life beyond the grave. But they will all have to come out here sooner or later, and perhaps a few will find the change easier, the journey less formidable, by reason of what I shall have taught them. Is it not worthwhile?''