June 26, 2017
June 26, 1944: “…a swell souvenir…”
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
June 18, 2017
June 18, 1945: “We are running a mock election on the unit just now…”
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
June 13, 2017
June 8, 2017: Launch Party at Open Book
“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
June 4, 2017
June 4, 1944: “It is with sadness that we hear every day about the deadly bombings on France!”
Detmold, June 4, 1944
Good old Georges,
Really, what’s new with you? Still no news from you. Unfortunately, the mail doesn’t work very well, and I get very few letters.
June 1, 2017
Marcel’s Letters is now in the Daimler-Benz Library
While working on the book, I had — I still have, to be honest — conflicted feelings about Daimler-Benz. READ MORE
May 25, 2017
Book Club Questions
Have you selected Marcel’s Letters for your Book Club? Use this list of questions to frame a lively discussion about the book. Or, you know, you can pretend to discuss the book and just drink wine. I know how some Book Clubs roll. I won’t judge.
Do you want me to join you? Drop me an email at carolyn (at) porterfolioinc.com and we can arrange a virtual meeting via Google Hangouts.
Click here to see the BookClub handout
May 23, 2017
1943 French Compulsory Labor Service Census Certificate
In one of the letters Marcel mailed from Berlin, he mentioned having to show his papers to the German police. My guess is that he showed them his arbeitskarte (worker card) which likely included his photo and listed basic biographic information. The arbeitskarte might have also been inked with his fingerprints.READ MORE
May 21, 2017
You would think signing the damn thing would be easy
I received a shipment of eight books from the publisher. All but one of those books will be mailed to members of the Heuzé family in France.
Since everything about publishing is new to me, I had to research how to sign a book. READ MORE
May 16, 2017
Booklist Starred Review of Marcel’s Letters
Starred Review
Issue: May 15, 2017
Although Porter found the letters, perhaps they also found her. READ MORE
May 1, 2017
May 1, 1945: News of Hitler’s death: “I’m wondering if it is true…”
Germany
May 1, 1945
No. 144
My darling wife,
I have just finished a long letter to Mother and it has been overdue.READ MORE
May 1, 2017
“We are learning how to write in cursive…”
I was rooting around some old papers, looking for something else entirely, and found this gem of a writing sample from third grade.
April 27, 2017
Book Blurb: Glenn Kurtz
Marcel’s Letters deftly portrays how a curiosity can grow into a search, and the search into an obsession. Carolyn’s story bursts with the excitement of discovery and culminates with the indescribable honor of returning fragments of a forgotten history to the people they were meant for.
– Glenn Kurtz, author of Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film