By Danielle Capalbo

One year ago, Alison Smith was introduced to PostSecret.com; now she reads it together regularly. For a long time, Smith said, she contemplated sending a secret of her own but was hesitant – someone from her church, a friend or a cousin might recognize her handwriting. But eventually she sent one anyway.

“It was a relief,” she said. “That’s kind of the beauty behind it. Now people know something about me, even if I never wanted them to.”

PostSecret was founded by Frank Warren, a professional secrets collector. More accurately, the secrets find him: about 1,000 per week, from all around the world, he said. For three years, anonymous strangers have mailed the Maryland resident their confessions – some funny, some sorrowful and others obscure written on postcards.

“I am a successful, well known classical musician … but I only listen to ROCK AND ROLL,” one wrote. “I handed the most important person in my life the drugs that killed him,” wrote another.

Warren tried to create a safe, nonjudgmental environment where people can reveal themselves, he said. That environment is called PostSecret, a community art project founded by Warren wherein strangers send their secrets in the form of postcards to his house in Germantown, Md.

In turn, he shares those secrets with the world. Warren has published the postcards on PostSecret.com, a virtual gallery of nameless and faceless confessions that is updated every Sunday, and in four best-selling books, according to a press release from his publishing company William Morrow.

Warren released a fourth book Oct. 9. “A Lifetime of Secrets” is a digest of revealing postcards, much like his other publications, “PostSecret,” “My Secret” and “The Secret Lives of Men and Women.”

As its title suggests, “A Lifetime of Secrets” features contributions from people of all ages; from start to finish, the secrets age with their senders.

“It’s the universal story of the many different generations living today and the secrets that define them,” according to the press release.

Warren will visit the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Oct. 30 to promote “A Lifetime of Secrets.” He will discuss the origins of the project and tell stories about various secrets.

“My mom thinks she’s fat,” wrote one stranger, presumably a child: the handwriting is large and fitted deliberately between the guiding highway lines of an elementary school notebook. “I think she’s perfect.”

“I’m 55 and steal my son’s weed,” one wrote. “Maybe he knows.”

“A Lifetime of Secrets” is an art exhibit too, like all PostSecret manifestations. Every confession is presented creatively and carefully, some scrawled beautifully in thoughtful cursive, others as part of a collage. Some are complemented by a painting or photograph.

None of the secrets are edited by Warren.

“You get to fully express yourself, and that’s a huge part [of the appeal],” Smith said.

Two weeks ago, Smith submitted her own secret, an emotional and measured process, she said.

“When I got to create it and design it how I wanted, it really showed me as a person,” she said.

Warren’s project has gained critical acclaim, earning him five Bloggie weblog awards. His work has also been recognized by the National Mental Health Association for raising awareness of suicide prevention, a cause Warren supports strongly, having lost a good friend and a family member to suicide.

PostSecret has raised more than $100,000 for the National Helpline Network, Warren said, and a portion of the proceeds from his books goes to the organization. The National Mental Health Association granted him a special award in 2006, honoring people and actions that progressed the cause of mental health, according to the association’s website.

PostSecret provides an outlet for people whose secrets are too heavy or hard to speak about said Ellen Winner, a psychology professor at Boston College.

“The less people repress – the more things can be out in the open – the better,” she said. “It’s a relief to put it up there, and maybe it’s a relief to put it up there and see no one picks it out as the worst.”

Winner added that the project seems voyeuristic, but that readers may find its universality comforting. They browse to find if anyone shares horrific thoughts or memories, she said.

Smith compared her habit of looking at the website with rubbernecking while passing the scene of an accident.

“Wow,” she said. “It’s so not OK to be looking at this. But you don’t want to look away.”

Smith and her roommate stay up after midnight on Saturdays, waiting for Warren’s weekly updates.

Warren said there is a specific reason strangers choose to share their secrets on a daily basis – enough secrets to fill his first four books.

“The PostSecret community … is anonymous and there are no social repercussions,” he said in a press release. “Sometimes I think we keep secrets for the wrong reasons. If we could instead find that right person to talk to we might find that talking about an embarrassing story or admitting our frailty might lead to a more authentic relationship with others or ourselves.”