Letter from Home was commissioned by Paul Whiteman and the American Broadcasting Company for a radio performance. Premiered on October 17, 1944, the work is a short, lyrical essay for small orchestra that exemplifies the gentler, more intimate aspects of the "Americana" style that permeates Copland's works of the 1930s and 40s.

Though less substantial a work than much of Copland's output from that particularly fertile period—which saw the composition of Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, and the Third Symphony—and obviously produced among currents of wartime boosterism and morale-building, Letter From Home possesses moments of subtle beauty and simple charm. The title carries no hidden implications; the piece is merely a portrayal of the melancholy and pleasant nostalgia that one might feel upon receiving a distant communication from one's family, sentiments with a timely and obvious relevance to the scores of American servicemen then stationed in distant lands. Copland's repeated weaving of a few simple, folklike tunes into the musical texture aptly conveys a sense of wistfulness and reflection.

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