| 100% | NEHRU | 5 | Writer of 1929's "Letters From a Father to His Daughter" while imprisoned |
| 37% | LOVE | 4 | "Hair ___" (Oscar-winning animated short featuring a father learning to style his daughter's curls) |
| 33% | SAS | 3 | Letters on the side of a plane from Beijing to Oslo, say |
| 33% | ALPHABET | 8 | Letters from A to Z |
| 32% | HEMINGWAY | 9 | American writer of "A Farewell to Arms" in 1929 |
| 32% | RILKE | 5 | Rainer Maria ___, writer of "Letters to a Young Poet" |
| 32% | OBAMA | 5 | "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters" writer |
| 31% | NOTE | 4 | Any letter from A to G |
| 31% | HERO | 4 | A dad, to his daughter |
| 31% | ARM | 3 | What a father offers to his daughter as they walk down her wedding aisle |
| 31% | SEEMEAFTERCLASS | 15 | Ominous request from a teacher ... or a hint to the first words (and following letters!) of 17-, 26- and 43-Across |
| 31% | SUFFIX | 6 | Letters added to a word's end, opposite of prefix |
| 30% | DEARBUDS | 8 | Start of a letter to one's besties? |
| 30% | PELOPS | 6 | Son of Tantalus in Greek mythology killed by his father and served to the gods as a meal |
| 30% | AHOY | 4 | Greeting from a pirate to his captain |
| 30% | AESOP | 5 | "Lion's share" originated from a story of his |
| 29% | RODIN | 5 | His "The Gates of Hell" depicts a scene from Dante's "In*rno" |
| 29% | SIGMAS | 6 | Letters from Greece with a numeral value of 200 |
| 29% | TIM | 3 | (9/10) He helped the Cratchit family and became a father figure to Tiny ___, and lived the rest of his life embodying the spirit of Christmas. |
| 29% | EIEIO | 5 | Letters from a children’s chorus |
| 29% | WAR | 3 | "___ of the Worlds," 2005 sci-fi film directed by Steven Spielberg, where a man tries to protect his family from an alien attack |
| 29% | HARLANCOBEN | 11 | Mystery writer who signed a five-year deal with Netflix to develop 14 of his novels as miniseries and films (2 wds.) |
| 29% | TENDOLLARS | 10 | Value of a U.S. coronet head coin, minted from 1838 to 1907 |
| 28% | MELITTLESWEEPEA | 15 | Call from a cartoon sailor to his young'un |
| 28% | STET | 4 | Confident reply from a writer to an editor, maybe |
| 28% | MISSYOU | 7 | *Text to someone who's been away for a while [Opposite of 17-Across?] |
| 28% | CARTALK | 7 | NPR show from 1977 to 2021, and a description of this puzzle's theme |
| 28% | HISANDHEIRS | 11 | Like an estate that a father wills to his children? |
| 28% | ANAGRAM | 7 | Letters of a word rearranged to form another |
| 28% | ESCAPE | 6 | To get away from, out of a restraint |