≡ Read Gratis Marcel Letters A Font and the Search for One Man Fate Carolyn Porter Books

Marcel Letters A Font and the Search for One Man Fate Carolyn Porter Books

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Marcel Letters A Font and the Search for One Man Fate Carolyn Porter Books

What started as an initial search for design inspiration for a typeface project (handwritten letters found in an antique store) evolved into a search for the author (Marcel Heuzé) and the story behind the series of 72-year-old hand-written letters he wrote from a forced labor camp near Berlin, is one any lover of design, history or thoughtful storytelling will treasure.

Roughly 6.5 million civilians were forced to work in German labor camps for industrial giants such as Bosch, Daimler-Benz, Philips, Siemens, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW. Many of these workcamps were actually subcamps attached to the larger concentration camps like Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen. According to John Beyer and Stephen Schneider's "Forced Labour under Third Reich," over a million French civilians were conscripted by French authorities to fulfill the Third Reich's Organization Todt's increasing labor requirements, and provide human resources to work alongside forced slave labor from Eastern Europe. These "guest workers," were labor resources culled from nations considered "friendly," allied or neutral to Germany, but were still forced to provide their skillsets to the Reich's war effort.

Marcel Heuzé was one of those estimated 1,100,000 French guest workers.

While trying to understand the story of the author of the letters, what happened to him and his family, why wartime letters from a French national would be in a Minnesota antique shop, why he was in a forced labor camp inside Germany in the first place, and how to approach Marcel’s surviving family in present-day France — Carolyn unearths the story of how the French government, in collaboration with their German occupiers enabled and enforced the conscription of French citizens to work for the Third Reich (after the nation's defeat in 1940).

It’s a side story of World War Two that is often overlooked, and she handles it wonderfully, taking us along on a completely engrossing and passionate journey of her own discovery, we’re wide-eyed in amazement with her as she weaves each new thread into the tapestry of Marcel’s life — initially a fabric made from the sorrow of wartime forced absence, but brightened into a post-war life of hope and renewal. It’s also the story of a family rediscovering their own past, and reconnecting with each other, in a way that might not have happened had the letters not called to Carolyn to pick them up back in 2002.

The typeface that started this journey, "Marcel Script" was published by P22 in 2014, and has won four awards including the Certificate for Typographic Excellence from the New York Type Director's Club. It's a masterwork -- it’s the wonderfully personable and expressive typeface that graces the cover of the book's dust jacket.

I was once honored to have a Holocaust survivor "bear witness" to me his story of survival, the deaths of his family and his liberation from Buchenwald. I was left in tears when he finished. It's been my duty to pass that story on to others, to remind them of the darkest truths of our history, and the risks of ignoring those lessons.

Carolyn's unlikely discovery in the Stillwater antique shop, of Marcel's peaceful words written to his children from inside Germanyt, is also the story of a survivor bearing witness and passing that truth to a new generation to bear the weight -- only this story was told in the graceful dance of thoughtful words in looping handwritten letterforms, on pages of now yellowing, thinning paper.


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Marcel Letters A Font and the Search for One Man Fate Carolyn Porter Books Reviews

Memoirs can deal with different subjects in the author's life. "Love", "family", "history", and, of course, that biggie, "the development of a new font". In Carolyn Porter's memoir, "Marcel's Letters", she deals with all those. I'm a font geek - as is Porter - but as it is her business, she's much closer to development than I would ever be. Porter's memoir is a delightful tracing of her search for the man-behind-the-handwriting she hoped to make into a new font.

Carolyn Porter found some letters and a postcard in French for sale in an antique store about 10 years ago. She was attracted by the handwriting - and it is indeed a lovely, elegant hand - and began the process of making a font, based on the writing. But she also wondered what the card and letters said and to who and from who they were written. The swastika on them, along with the dates, indicated they were mailed from Berlin during WW2. They were mailed to a small town in France, a bit outside Paris. Porter, with some help, translated the material and then began to track down Marcel Heuze, a Frenchman who was sent to work for the Germans in a work factory in Berlin.

In Porter's book she eventually finds the story of Marcel and his family. And, her font "Marcel", is a prize winner. The book is fun to read and I'd love to be able to use the beautiful font, but I think it's only available commercially.
This book creates a bridge between the past and the present in an amazingly unique way. It exposes a fascinating and heart wrenching chapter in World War II history that wasn’t just forgotten, but for many of us was never known! The story is unveiled through the clues in letters found in an antique shop because of one woman’s stubborn persistence to find out, against all odds – did Marcel live? But it all begins with a thoroughly modern task – creating a font. That’s right, a font. Most people don’t realize the hard work and artistic passion that goes into creating the choices we take for granted in documents and messages every day. Who knew there were conventions and awards for such things?

There were many points in the story that moved me to tears, both of sadness and joy. (I won’t be a spoiler by saying what they were.) There is also a lot of humor and things fans of the Fargo franchise will enjoy – like going on a hike at a resort on a lake - in the middle of winter, in the snow, on purpose!

As completely disconnected as letters from World War II may seem from our modern computerized world, this story brings them together! More importantly, it provides a remarkable tribute to a simple man who is just one out of hundreds of thousands who suffered without recognition. It memorializes his legacy, his life and his love for his family by capturing his handwriting in a beautiful font. It may soon become the default font for love letters – to express your love not only with words, but by using P22 Marcel Script!
What started as an initial search for design inspiration for a typeface project (handwritten letters found in an antique store) evolved into a search for the author (Marcel Heuzé) and the story behind the series of 72-year-old hand-written letters he wrote from a forced labor camp near Berlin, is one any lover of design, history or thoughtful storytelling will treasure.

Roughly 6.5 million civilians were forced to work in German labor camps for industrial giants such as Bosch, Daimler-Benz, Philips, Siemens, Volkswagen, Audi and BMW. Many of these workcamps were actually subcamps attached to the larger concentration camps like Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen. According to John Beyer and Stephen Schneider's "Forced Labour under Third Reich," over a million French civilians were conscripted by French authorities to fulfill the Third Reich's Organization Todt's increasing labor requirements, and provide human resources to work alongside forced slave labor from Eastern Europe. These "guest workers," were labor resources culled from nations considered "friendly," allied or neutral to Germany, but were still forced to provide their skillsets to the Reich's war effort.

Marcel Heuzé was one of those estimated 1,100,000 French guest workers.

While trying to understand the story of the author of the letters, what happened to him and his family, why wartime letters from a French national would be in a Minnesota antique shop, why he was in a forced labor camp inside Germany in the first place, and how to approach Marcel’s surviving family in present-day France — Carolyn unearths the story of how the French government, in collaboration with their German occupiers enabled and enforced the conscription of French citizens to work for the Third Reich (after the nation's defeat in 1940).

It’s a side story of World War Two that is often overlooked, and she handles it wonderfully, taking us along on a completely engrossing and passionate journey of her own discovery, we’re wide-eyed in amazement with her as she weaves each new thread into the tapestry of Marcel’s life — initially a fabric made from the sorrow of wartime forced absence, but brightened into a post-war life of hope and renewal. It’s also the story of a family rediscovering their own past, and reconnecting with each other, in a way that might not have happened had the letters not called to Carolyn to pick them up back in 2002.

The typeface that started this journey, "Marcel Script" was published by P22 in 2014, and has won four awards including the Certificate for Typographic Excellence from the New York Type Director's Club. It's a masterwork -- it’s the wonderfully personable and expressive typeface that graces the cover of the book's dust jacket.

I was once honored to have a Holocaust survivor "bear witness" to me his story of survival, the deaths of his family and his liberation from Buchenwald. I was left in tears when he finished. It's been my duty to pass that story on to others, to remind them of the darkest truths of our history, and the risks of ignoring those lessons.

Carolyn's unlikely discovery in the Stillwater antique shop, of Marcel's peaceful words written to his children from inside Germanyt, is also the story of a survivor bearing witness and passing that truth to a new generation to bear the weight -- only this story was told in the graceful dance of thoughtful words in looping handwritten letterforms, on pages of now yellowing, thinning paper.