Laura Cameron on Substack
The Letter-Opener
Stories from the letters — the history, the humor, and the human detail behind Your Loving Son, Ronie
Every letter has
a story behind it
The Letter-Opener is Laura Cameron’s free Substack newsletter — a place to share the stories that didn’t quite fit in the book’s appendices. Each issue takes one thread from Ronie’s letters and pulls it: a bit of 1940s slang, a radio show in-joke, a moment of Home Front ingenuity, an unfamiliar place explained.
Published regularly, it’s free to read and free to subscribe. No algorithm, no advertising — just letters, history and the occasional latrine-dash cartoon.
Latest from
The Letter-Opener
#32. A heated 1944 weather report
What to wear to defeat the heat if not the enemy
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#31. Anticipation.
The Spring 1944 semester at Cornell draws to a close, bringing real soldiering closer, and so 17-year-old Ronie drew a cartoon simply titled "Anticipation."
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#30. Secrets and goldbricks in 1944
A certain bugler tries ‘gold-bricking’ while the nation guards its secrets
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Issue art: birthday buttons
Ronie’s bugling practice
The latrine dash — Army humor at its finest
Keep Punching — Home Front propaganda
Join the Letter-Opener
Every issue is free. No algorithm decides what you see — it arrives in your inbox on publication day, and you can read it at your own pace, like a letter.
Subscribers also get early notice of events, book club visits, and new discoveries from the archive.
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