LETTERS TO HIS PARENTS, 1939-1951; ED. BY CHRISTOPH GODDE

'My dears: this is but a brief note to welcome you to the new world, where you are now no longer all too far away from us. ' So begins Adorno's letter to his parents in May 1939, welcoming them to Cuba where they had just arrived after fleeing from Nazi Germany at the last minute. At the end of 1939 his parents moved again to Florida and then to New York, where they lived from August 1940 until the end of their lives. It is only with Adorno's move to California at the end of 1941 that his letters to his parents start arriving once more, reporting on work and living conditions as well as on friends, acquaintances and the Hollywood stars of his time. One finds reports of his collaborations with Max Horkheimer, Thomas Mann and Hanns Eisler alongside accounts of parties, clowning around with Charlie Chaplin, and ill-fated love affairs. But the letters also show his constant longing for Europe: Adorno already began to think about his return as soon as the USA entered the war. Adorno's letters to his parents - surely the most open and direct letters he ever wrote - not only afford the reader a glimpse of the experiences that gave rise to the famous Minima Moralia, but also show Adorno from a previously unknown, very personal side. They end with the first reports from the ravaged Frankfurt to his mother - who remained in New York - and from Amorbach, Adorno's childhood paradise Adorno's letters to his parents in May 1939, welcome them to Cuba where they had just arrived after fleeing from Nazi Germany at the last minute. Adorno's letters to his parents not only afford the reader a glimpse of the experiences that gave rise to the famous 'Minima Moralia', but also show Adorno from a personal side COVER 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Editors’ Foreword 7 1939 12 1940 44 PLATES 78 1941 86 1942 97 1943 141 1944 183 1945 229 1946 261 1947 292 1948 331 1949 366 1950 398 1951 402 Index 405