Finalist for the 2018 Minnesota Book AwardA graphic designer’s search for inspiration leads to a cache of letters and the mystery of one man’s fate during World War II.Seeking inspiration for a new font design in an antique store in small-town Stillwater, Minnesota, graphic designer Carolyn Porter stumbled across a bundle of letters and was immediately drawn to their beautifully expressive … beautifully expressive pen-and-ink handwriting. She could not read the lettersthey were in Frenchbut she noticed all of them had been signed by a man named Marcel and mailed from Berlin to his family in France during the middle of World War II.
As Carolyn grappled with designing the font, she decided to have one of Marcel’s letters translated. Reading it opened a portal to a different time, and what began as mere curiosity quickly became an obsession with finding out why the letter writer, Marcel Heuzé, had been in Berlin, how his letters came to be on sale in a store halfway around the world, and, most importantly, whether he ever returned to his beloved wife and daughters after the war.
Marcel’s Letters is the incredible story of Carolyn’s increasingly desperate search to uncover the mystery of one man’s fate during WWII, seeking answers across Germany, France, and the United States. Simultaneously, she continues to work on what would become the acclaimed P22 Marcel font, immortalizing the man and his letters that waited almost seventy years to be reunited with his family.
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This isn’t fiction; it’s a real story about the efforts of one woman to return personal letters written during WW II to the letter writer’s family. But it’s much, much more than that and is a truly heart-warming story.
Marcel’s Letters is a “past/present” book that is actually true. A lady who is in to creating script finds this package of letters with a unique style. She begins to mold her own original script based upon the style. Written in French, she gets them translated and is pulled into Marcel’s world — a Frenchman during WW II is is sent to Germany to work in a factory, not much better than a serf. Eventually, she locates family members, finishes her original font which is well received by the industry and travels to France to meet Marcel’s descendants. I really enjoyed this book and I do lots of reading.
The plot is original but it moves so very slowly. I don’t think anyone’s spouse would put up with the main characters behavior and obsession.
What a great memoir of what would usually be a boring subject, creating a font. Carolyn finds out about the person who inspired the font she creates and gives it life!
If you are interested in calligraphy this is an education into that world as well as the aithor’s semi obsession to learn what happened to the author of these beautifully written (letters as well as content). One learns a lot about Europe during WWII, the Nazi abuses of humanity in general and how people have recovered. At times it is hard to plow through the author’s details of her hunt but overall I found the book enjoyable and well worth reading.
The author got caught up in Marcel’s letters, first as a font that she wanted to copy and then as a means to find out about Marcel himself. Through this book I learned more about the conscription of workers by the Nazis during World War II. The author took years and spent money she didn’t seem to have to track down what had become of Marcel. I admit that it got a little long for me and I skimmed the end to find out what happened. A wonderful story of perseverance, hope, and family.
A bit boring when talking about the making of a new font.
The letters from marcel were interesting and informative.
I suggest you read the letters and skip the font making.
I enjoyed this book. I couldn’t believe how hard she worked to get the letters translated and to share them with Marcel’s family. And it’s a true story.
A terrific read.. loved every page and more. Such an interesting story and very well written.
An excellent book and wonderful little story. The author did a masterful job combining the life and information about Marcell, the letter writer, and her own quest for a unique design to honor a family. A bright, lovely spot in a tired old world.
liked the author’s determination to find out the fate of Marcel
Combining creative work in fonts ( much more difficult than most people realize) with a compelling history. Couldn’t put it down
I found the story about Marcel fascinating, but the parts about the font bored me to tears. I ended up skipping pages at a time.
When I first ordered this book I didn’t realize it was a true story. I bogged down a bit in the beginning when I read about the font and how it is established. To me the real story was finding the Marcel. I found this book to be very entertaining and interesting. The quest for finding out if Marcel survived WWII was captivating.
I didn’t understand the subtitle at first, and thought it was fiction. Once I figured out the book, it made it even more wonderful! Original and very interesting. I loved the story, and found my self cheering for Marcel too. It’s an awesome book! I highly recommend this story!
It was a fascinating story within a story. History emerges from a Tottenham different perspective. Even more interesting? It’s true.
This book reads like a long letter from a friend sharing the excitement, frustration, and rewards of a project that turned into much more than a project. I was immediately involved.
I really enjoyed this book. I had no inkling about what went into developing a new font. I learned about kerning, spacing, flowing. The many tweaks to letters and spacing between letters was really interesting and the time it took to do all of those tweaks was surprising. The back story about the handwritten letters the author had found and based her font on was also very interesting, and informative. I told about yet another part of World War II I knew nothing about. The ending, although satisfactory, was not complete as I will forever wonder what happened to the other letters. All in all a good read and I learned a lot about this little known profession. Recommended.
Well written. Held interest to end. Discovery. Problem solving. Emotional. Historical real. Have recommended to others and only finished it last night.
This was a very different read in that it was informative but had you turning the pages to see what she learns. It is heart warming and very inspirational to know that someone would go to such lengths as Carolyn did to find answers and complete a project.