An absolutely engaging and inherently fascinating read from first page to last, Marcel's Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man's Fate is an extraordinary story—one that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book it finished and set back upon the shelf. ... Unreservedly recommended, especially for community and academic library collections...
– Julie Summers, Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
October 16th, 1944
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson,
I have been waiting several days to be [sure] that the mail service had resumed operations. But Bob Ingalls will probably be back before this card reaches you and you will already know already all about us. However I am glad to tell you [my] gratitude for your thoughts and for your parcels. It is hard to imagine all the comfort and the pleasure I had and Hommer also when we got them: they brought along a bit of American atmosphere and the remembrance of the beautiful years I spent in U.S.A. and when one is behind the barbed wires this is marvelous!
October 13, 1944
France
Darling Marie,
I’m enclosing a few lines to let you know that I’m still in the best of health & also pray to hear the same from you, my [loved] one. Today I’m going to answer a few of your letters dated Sept. 19th, 20th & 26th. Before I start, I want you to know it is really cold out here where I am & I understand it is also cold back home. Oh well, I guess there isn’t anything I could do about it.
Photos: 2012 TypeCon Type Crit. Akira Kobayashi reviewing the test print.
Intense stares from John Downer and Roger Black (just looking at this photo brings about a wave of anxiety).
©May Chung
Several weeks ago, at the ATypI conference in Montreal, I met a delightful woman named May Chung; May is design professor at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. I don’t recall how we happened upon the topic, but we ended up talking about the 2012 TypeCon conference in Milwaukee. I mentioned I had participated in the Type Crit that year. May’s eyes lit up. She said she watched those critiques, though she didn’t remember the specifics of my critique (…why would she?!). May was holding a big SLR camera in her hand, and I asked her if she had, by chance, taken any photos during the 2012 Type Crit. Yes, she told me, she was certain she had photos from the 2012 Type Crit—though she made no promises whether she had taken any photos of me or during my critique.
CP: Congratulations on the release of “Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee” (Sept 1. 2017, Kent State University Press). This fascinating story would have been entirely lost to time if you hadn’t put together these German and American puzzle pieces — congratulations! Tell us a bit about the mystery you solved:
AMA: Thank you, Carolyn! Actually, it was two mysteries, one on each continent.READ MORE
I recently returned from five days in Boston attending TypeCon 2017, presented by the Society for Typographic Aficionados. It was five days jam-packed with lectures on type design, designers, type history, type across languages and cultures, along with time to connect with other type designers.READ MORE
MARCEL HEUZÉ 1949–2017
Yesterday — August 20, 2017 — brought sad news from France: Marcel Heuzé, son of Marcel and Renée Heuzé, passed away.READ MORE
Library of Congress image USZ62-59134
Upper left: Before; Center: During. Lower right: After.
On this day seventy-three years ago, eighty-three Army Air Force B-17 bombers targeted Daimler’s Marienfelde factory. “The bombing is very effective,” the mission record stated, “and ten major [targets] are severely damaged during one of the best days that the Eighth [Air Force] experiences.”
If you’ve read “Marcel’s Letters,” you’ll know I scoured military mission records to find out how and when the factory where Marcel worked had been bombed. If you have the book, you can read the passage about the search—and this specific bombing raid—on pages 109–112. The photo above is first referenced at the bottom of page 110.
This blog is a reflection on, and a collection of, unexpected interactions. This post will evolve and grow as time goes on. Come back again — I’m sure I will be adding more!READ MORE
June 26, 1944
Dear mom, pop, & family,
Thought you’d like a little souvenir of England mom, so I picked this bracelet up from a guy who makes them. READ MORE
No. 145 18th June 1945
Dear Nova,
Many happy returns of today! I had not forgotten your birthday but I decided to mention it on the day itself instead of trying to time a letter to reach you on the day.READ MORE
“There was a whole lot of love in that room,” a friend remarked a couple of days after the launch party. Her comment made me smile from ear to ear.READ MORE