1947

173  LOS ANGELES, 6.1.1947

6 Jan 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

the two pleasant horses have caught a ghastly cold, I even more severely than Archie, who will be in bed until Thursday anyway. Aside from that, the doctor said that he was already much better. There is a flu epidemic here at the moment; I am dripping all day and we both have sore throats, but no fever, only a slight temperature. There is no cause for concern, really, one only feels lethargic and drowsy. Archie is sitting in bed quite cheerfully, while my own senses are only up to playing 66 and draughts or nine men’s morris. What a pain. – Hopefully the cold weather is not giving you so hard a time. – The Löwenthals plan to come here by car around the middle of the month. – Did the Pollocks call you after their return? Take care of yourself, and make sure not to imitate us. Hugs and kisses from your

lanky Giraffe

My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow, I have a heavy cold, which is already subsiding, but otherwise I am feeling much better – subjectively speaking, I can no longer notice any stomach trouble, and will already be getting up in a few days. Incidentally, the pains I had in N.Y. 2 years ago, which you perhaps recall, were probably the same thing.

I am working with wild energy and much joy.

Begin the new year well, my animal. I would be infinitely happy to see you soon.

Heartiest kisses

from your faithful child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

174  LOS ANGELES, 12.1.1947

12 Jan 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

a thousand thanks for the splendidly warm blanket. Are you quite sure you can spare it? Archie is very much afraid that you will now be cold. – He has been up again since Friday, and is feeling quite well on the whole. At the moment he is up at Thomas Mann’s place. I am still not quite back to normal, and just now I am having a rather irksome bout of conjunctivitis. – I have meanwhile sent a package with clothes to Franz Adorno and family with an additional 3 lb of chocolate. – The Dieterles came back from Europe recently, and have been telling us some very interesting things; life in Germany must still be horribly difficult.

Many hugs and kisses from your long-necked

Giraffe

My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow animal,

I cannot tell you how happy I was to receive the blanket – as a child I had always envied my father for it! – but at the same time I have a terribly guilty conscience, and imagine you lying there and shivering, whereas you could cover your dear old motherly bones with this good warm blanket, my animal. After all, it is madness for me to have the blanket here in the warm South while you, in the grisly New York winter, do not! If you catch pneumonia, I will tear out my – not hair, for I hardly have any, but rather my last bristles.

And yet I was incredibly happy, perhaps more happy than I have ever been in my whole life upon receiving a gift. But: let me know if you are properly warm, whether you genuinely do not need the blanket.

I am rid of my ghastly cold and, thanks to the medicine, I hardly notice my ulcers after spending 2 weeks in bed.

Thomas Mann, whom I visited today, has written the new chapter of his novel,¹ following my suggestions to the letter. It is a very peculiar relationship.

Tomorrow is a solemn day: Max and I are starting a big piece of work together.²

I myself have completed another big text³ I had been working on feverishly in bed. I am in the most productive condition possible, and extremely happy despite my laughable stomach business. It is probably a result of psychological factors, by the way, like all ulcers. In my case, these go by the name of Charlotte Alexander⁴ (completely entre nous). Perhaps more on that another time. But do not worry; that has nothing to do with the horses.

I kiss you upon your rosy hippo snout

Your old Archibald

Original: handwritten letter.

1  The chapter dealing with Adrian Leverkühn’s composition Doktor Fausti Weheklag.

2  The close theoretical collaboration between Horkheimer and Adorno, as in the case of the Dialectic of Enlightenment, was not continued. At the time, both were still considering writing the book on dialectical logic.

3  Adorno was working on the third part of Minima Moralia at the time.

4  No further information.

175  LOS ANGELES, 19.1.1947

T. W. ADORNO

19 Jan 1947

My dears faithful Wondrous Hippo Cow,

today I come to you with a request.

Felix Weil has separated from his ghastly wife, thank God, and went back to New York today. This circumstance is very favourable in every way – also for the institute. It was a great tragedy; he went through the most atrocious time, remained extremely loyal to all of us; and became incredibly attached to me.

I have now asked him to look after you in N.Y.; not only because I know you enjoy hearing directly from us, but above all for his sake. He really has no idea what to do with himself, and the mere fact of having a task to fulfil would do him a world of good.

So, please invite him at once when he calls, be particularly cordial and friendly towards him (he thirsts for it), speak well of the institute, and let him come again soon, even if you find it is a little boring. He is a profoundly unhappy person in great need of love; and for all his bad manners and strange character traits he is a loyal, dead reliable good fellow. You only need to let him talk, and he will already be happy.

You would really be doing me a huge favour.

I am feeling much better; I am lively and in very good spirits. At the start of February I shall be going to S.F.

Heartiest kisses

from the old child

Teddie

The lovely writing paper was a Christmas present from Lily Latté. Many hugs and kisses from your lanky

Giraffe

Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.

176  LOS ANGELES, 30.1.1947

30 Jan 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

I am very sad that your dear eyes are unwell. What did the doctor say? Can one do anything to prevent rapid fatigue? My eyes got back to normal very quickly with some penicillin cream. – We just received the letter enclosed from Franz and Helenchen; I am sure it will interest Julie to know that one can now correspond about business matters once more. – Have you meanwhile heard from Felix Weil already? The wife has just flown to New York after him.

Many hugs and kisses

from your

lanky Giraffe

My Hippo Cow animal, today just this quick greeting – I have an incredible amount of work to do, have to complete a chapter of the Berkeley book before I go to S.F. (on 5 February).

Tonight at Max’s for a party. Leo and Golde arrived in good shape. I am feeling fine; the little ulcer is still making its presence felt, but the pills prevent any real pain. Otherwise I am very lively and in good spirits.

Are you being treated by an ophthalmologist? I am naturally very concerned about your eyes, my animal.

As it is freezing cold here at present, I am sleeping with the new blanket every night; it warms me quite wonderfully.

According to the letter from Franz, we can now send him lists etc.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

177  LOS ANGELES, 20.2.1947

20 February 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

but of course you sent me the lovely violet Madonna pendant, and I could have sworn I thanked you right away. Please forgive your foolish Giraffe. – We are working at full throttle here once again. The project team in Berkeley is now writing the manuscript, and Teddie is up to his neck in work. Unfortunately I cannot help him with it as much as I would like, as I have been rather unwell these last few weeks; I have a migraine attack almost every week, and otherwise also many headaches. – On Saturday we were on the set at Lang’s studio (I for the first time in my life, Archie had already visited sets in Neubabelsberg and with the Dieterles). Crowd scenes were being shot, and for me – I almost never go to the cinema – it was quite interesting to see something like that for once. The whole thing reminded Archie very strongly of an opera rehearsal with conductor. I am sure you would have had fun too.

Yesterday we visited Norah’s mother for the first time since old Hahn died. She genuinely intends to go to Switzerland in May; her energy is amazing. – The Pollocks and Lix Weil are expected to return on Sunday; hopefully the institute will not be so busy.

Many hugs and kisses from your

Giraffe Gazelle

(If you look properly, you will notice that the letter is written in the finest Giraffa (the real language of giraffes).)

My dears Hippo Cow animal, I am back from S.F. and have completed a long chapter for the Berkeley book (about 100 pages of type), almost finished a big German manuscript, and also finally the proofs for the film book with Eisler, which looks very decent. So an inhuman heap of work. The Berkeley manuscript has to be finished by 1 May (I still have to write 2 chapters!); then Max and I will finally get around to ourselves again.

Charlotte and I have been reconciled since December (after a 9-month break), and we were recently invited there together 3 evenings in a row. But I very much doubt that it will still be as good as it was – there is too much that stands between us, her reasons being anger that I did not marry her, and in my case profound bitterness about many things she did to me. In spite of everything I am still incredibly attached to her, and it seems that she, in her curious fashion, is equally attached to me. She is still not divorced, and Robert not yet naturalized; it was because of the extremely delicate situation between us that I did not stay for the Seligmans’ golden wedding anniversary, even though everyone pestered me half to death.

I often told myself that I should not tell you anything about this business, which shook me to the very depths of my soul, but what is the point of having a mother if one cannot talk to her about everything. One day I will tell you the whole story my animal. Incidentally, C. was marriage-hunting in N.Y. in September, at the same time that I was there, and at that point we were entirely separate – I did not see her at all, and did not even know her address. I would so like you to meet her. Well, perhaps another time. Her marriage-hunts (our reason for breaking up) have all been fruitless. Objectively, she is deeply pitiable; but it is she who destroys everything for herself and for others.

But I am now much more in control of myself, and also in much better health. I do not doubt that all my ailments have been connected to C., and neither does Robert. Forgive the letter of confession; I had an irresistible need to write it.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

178  LOS ANGELES, 6.3.1947

6 March 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

a thousand thanks for your dear long letter. At the moment there is nothing special here apart from a great deal of work. – I am glad that Golde is checking up on you so well, even though I do not especially like her, as I find her too subservient and too much lacking a mind of her own. But then I am a horrible Giraffe and generally very big-headed. – The letter I have enclosed from Frau Seele may interest you; she is certainly a poor soul, but her view of the world is really very narrow. –

How are your dear eyes? I am terribly worried about them. If I could at least keep you company and read to you and have conversations with you, oh those stupid 3000 miles!

Many hugs and kisses from your lanky

Giraffe

My dears old Hippo Cow,

today just these lines – I am most terribly worried about your eyes. I hope it is nothing serious. The most important thing is to follow your doctor’s advice closely, and do not read and write too much, my animal.

Nothing new at all here, only dreadful amounts of work, but matters will improve after 1 May.

Fortunately I am still getting around to my own projects.

My relationship with C has hit rock bottom again; I have not answered her last two letters. But it is all much more complicated than one could comprehend from a distance, especially as far as the ‘blame’ is concerned. But we shall talk about all that one day

Keep me in your heart as I think of you

with kisses

from the old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

179  LOS ANGELES, 26.3.1947

26 March 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

you are quite right to be very angry with the two horses for not writing to you for so long. And yet there are a great many things to tell that will interest you. Last week we went to the cinema on two occasions – albeit both private showings. First to Lang to see his 11-year-old film ‘Fury’ (with Spencer Tracy, who was discovered around that time), an anti-lynching film, very exciting and much better than the things being shown today. The second was Chaplin’s new film Mr Verdoux, which is coming out in New York between 1 and 5 April. Although the film is 2 hours long, it is extremely exciting, very funny in parts, and definitely Chaplin’s best since Gold Rush, despite laying on the ideology too thick. It is about a petty bourgeois Bluebeard who, after being fired from his job as a banker, earns a hard living by marrying older women for their money, quickly murdering them and then hurrying on to the next one. Please do let us know if you would enjoy it, and whether it would be too much of a strain on your eyes if you were to watch the film with Julie. The two horses would like to treat you (both) to it.

Last night visited Thomas Mann, who read us his Nietzsche lecture;¹ at the end of April they are going first to Washington and New York, and then to Europe – England, Switzerland, Holland, Scandinavia. Hopefully the whole thing will not be too strenuous for him. – The Löwenthals are going back again next week, while Archie has to go to San Francisco once again.

Please give Julie my very best, and tell her that we have already received confirmation from the lawyer that the signatures arrived without incident. Have you sold any securities in the meantime?

Many hugs and kisses

from your old Giraffe

My dears old Hippo animal, Giraffe forgot to tell you that we were invited to Chaplin’s ‘Monsieur Verdoux’ with only about 15 other people, then afterwards to a private dinner at his place – with Gretel as his dinner partner. It continued late into the night. For a laugh, he, an American parodist and myself invented operas by Verdi, Wagner and Mozart. He is fantastically musical, acted and sang everything, I was at the piano and also sang. I think it was truly lovely. All sorts of celebrities such as Clifford Odets,² one of the Vanderbilts etc. also there. Mrs Chaplin is enchanting, as kind and modest as she is beautiful (she is the daughter of Eugene O’Neill). The Chaplins have now gone to N.Y., but should be back in about 6 weeks. His way of turning everything into theatre (he acts incessantly!) reminds me very much of you, my animal.

I now have the bulk of my study for Berkeley done; now only 1 long chapter to finish by 1 May so that I can breathe more easily again. Unfortunately I have to go to S.F. again next week; I wish I were back already. You really cannot imagine the amount of work I have had during the last 8 weeks. But I also got a great deal of enjoyment out of it, and I am in fairly good health.

Thomas Mann’s novel is finished; we received the last bundle of pages yesterday.

Max is feeling better; we hope finally to start properly again on 1 May, for then I will have put the ‘big’ Berkeley project behind me.

I hope you are well, my animal, and that those heavy hippo eyes are not giving you too much trouble after serving you loyally for so long.

My address from 2–7 April: Hotel Mark Hopkins, San Francisco, Cal.

Heartiest kisses from your old

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

1  ‘Nietzsche’s Philosophie im Lichte unserer Erfahrung’ [Nietzsche’s Philosophy in the Light of our Experience].

2  The dramatist and scriptwriter Clifford Odets (1906–63), who was temporarily married to the actress Luise Rainer.

180  LOS ANGELES, 11.4.1947

11 April 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

the newspaper cutting enclosed¹ shows you, once again, what strange children you have. – I had ghastly toothache – an abscess, then had the villain pulled and it simply would not heal, the nerve-ends were exposed, then a migraine, but now everything is back to normal. Robert Alexander is here, first stayed with Max for a few days, now with Lix. Anita lives in Los Angeles. – Early yesterday morning there was a little earthquake, the table wobbled and all the little animals I have standing around here rattled. Today it is almost unbearably hot.

Many hugs and kisses from your lanky

Giraffe

Archie postponed his trip to San Francisco, is only leaving on the 20th for a week.

11 April 1947

My dears faithful old Hippo Cow animal,

how are you? How are those good motherly eyes faring? I am so worried – how touching the end of your last letter was, where you wrote that your eyes have got cold feet. Hopefully your doctor will help you ( – that makes me think of Tristan:² ‘Unless the healing lady’ etc.)

I have postponed my trip to S.F. for 2 weeks, as my colleagues’ manuscripts were not yet finished. Meanwhile they have arrived, and are very decent (I am still waiting for one part). I will leave on Sunday the 20th, and this time will stay for at least a week; wish I were already back here.

Broken up completely with C., I did not write to her any more. Incidentally, Robert and Anita are here; he is staying with Lix, we had all three of them over two nights ago.

Tonight we are having Lisa Minghetti here who is delightful.

I am glad I shall soon be done with the work on the project so that we can get around to our own things again. I am simply a little tired, have not been sleeping well. Incredibly hot since yesterday.

Golde will tell you about us at length.

Get well very soon with heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

1  Not preserved.

2  Adorno quotes the words spoken by Kurvenal, who is keeping watch over the sleeping Tristan, at the start of Act Three: ‘Were he to awake, it would be only to leave us forever, unless the healing lady, she who alone can help us, first appears.’

181  LOS ANGELES, 1.5.1947

1 May 1947

My dears good Hippo Cow,

as I had forwarded your letter to Archie, I did not manage to reply to you; so, Luli is in New York, we have not heard from her in a long time, her husband was apparently very ill. – I went up to see Ali Baba, he was very happy to see me, sadly he looks thin and somewhat neglected. The children are indescribably funny, they look even more ape-like than Baba. – Archie is still taking his medication, though he does sometimes interrupt his diet when tempted by particularly good cocktails or sweets, but his diabetes is nonetheless absolutely under control. He is in very good spirits. – On Sunday at Norah’s for a farewell party; on the 10th she and her mother are going first to New York, then to Europe. – Further good recovery for your dear eyes.

Many hugs from your lanky

Giraffe

My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,

I returned from San Francisco safe and sound and in good spirits, after a trip that was in every sense very successful and pleasant. The big collective Berkeley book is almost finished (I only have about 20 pages left to write for my own contribution, and my associates are also making haste). I think it will be as decent as one can expect with such research stuff. I only have to go there once more concerning the book and the ‘Adult Project’;¹ the child project will be continuing.

To my great joy, I discovered upon my return the first 80 pages of proofs for the big German book I wrote with Max, printed in Amsterdam. Completely European – my first real communication with our homeland.

Norah Andreae is going to Switzerland with her mother for 3 months, also to Frankfurt. I will ask them to see Franz.

In S.F. there was a great surprise. Charlotte called me (after I had been completely silent for 3 months), insisted upon seeing me, and explained – not inhumanly, in fact even touchingly – that our estrangement had resulted from the fear that her relationship with me would prevent her, both inwardly and outwardly, from achieving the marriage she so desires (which would be a refuge for her) – and occasioned a complete reconciliation. There is no telling how long it will last, with her marriage obsession (and her anger that I will not leave Gretel), but it was certainly a great triumph, though dampened slightly by pity – for I think it is more a case of her being determined not to lose me than her loving me as much as she once did. Her situation is indeed a grisly one, with endless wrangles about her divorce. I still consider her the most delightful and enchanting creature in the world (– a creature: not a human), but now that she has returned the matter has lost its power over me. I am entirely engrossed in my work and happy with Giraffe.

Went to see some ice dance with the Horkheimers last night, rather nice. Tonight we are having a meeting here.

I am glad that you are sensing an improvement with your eyes. Hopefully it will last. – Today Mietze is coming to L.A. for 2 weeks. You should have seen her face when Charlotte and I turned up there. Robert and Anita were still here at the same time.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

1  This refers to The Authoritarian Personality.

182  LOS ANGELES, 14.5.1947

14 May 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

Archie is downtown in Los Angeles with Max and Fritz, so I have a little time to write. No, good Hippo Cow, you really need not worry about Charlotte. She has many negative and some positive aspects,* but in essence Archie was simply tormenting himself; the object was not so important. Perhaps his depression was also related to the emigration and the disappointment at the false peace. But after the reconciliation he realized that the whole business really only came about because Charlotte simply wants to marry at all costs, and I hope that he is now safe from any further anguish. Giraffe will make sure to look after the hippo, you can rely on that. – Lotte and E. are thinking of coming here in August. Oh, if only you could visit us sometime. – Luli was just here for four days, very sweet, but crazier than ever, and yet it is always a joy and a surprise to be with her. – At the moment I am not taking in any of Ali Baba’s children – the dogs finally have to be house-trained. But I reserve the right to a male descendant of Ali Baba. Afghans are simply wild animals and a certain risk, so one at least has to be sure that the landlord will not make any trouble. And – just between you and me – Ali Baba is still the only one for the two horses. – Max’s health is very erratic; he has a predisposition towards angina pectoris and should simply avoid strain, which he is not really doing.

We shall keep our fingers crossed that your poor eyes will soon get better; unfortunately the stupid doctors are not such a great help.

Many hugs and kisses from your lanky

Giraffe

Redvers Opie will be turning up here next week

After just returning home with Max and Fritz dead tired, but in the best of spirits, I shall today only cuddle you in authentic Afghan style and kiss you heartily.

Your faithful child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

183  LOS ANGELES, 23.5.1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

23 May 1947

thank you for your sweet letter and the newspaper cuttings. Archie has just borrowed the Kracauer book¹ from Lang and has been getting very worked up about it.–A few days ago we were treated to the pleasant surprise of having Redvers Opie over for dinner. It was enjoyable, a reminder of the old days. He had divorced Kathrin² fairly soon, given up his fellowship³ at Oxford and also his post at the embassy. Aside from that he is still his old self, only broader, full of youthful adventurousness.

Today I am finally sending you the letter from Dr Knöll,⁴ our former chemist, who then took over K+H.⁵ Perhaps you could be so kind as to forward the letter to Lottchen in Boston too, it should also be interesting for her. – Archie cannot remember the Heinlanger (Zuber) affair at all, what is that about? – I am glad that you are going to Rhinebeck in the summer, we also kept slinking off to Bar Harbor. If we manage to get away at all this year, it will probably only be in September, when it is no longer so crowded and cheaper. – Our landlady is tormenting us once again with a new threat, namely that she will sell half the house. There is still a massive housing shortage here, there may be apartments, but the prices are too high for horses to afford. – We are more and more tempted to see Europe again, perhaps someone from the institute will go there next year to get an idea. An acquaintance (the writer Thorberg)⁶ said something amusing: that the thought of Europe does not make him homesick, but rather go-sick. – Hopefully Julie will see many a lovely sight on her trip to Canada.

Many hugs and kisses from your lanky

Giraffe

My dears faithful old Hippo animal,

a thousand thanks for the letter, hopefully those poor eyes truly are getting better. I have no news apart from work. I have proof-read the book I wrote with Max and the one with Eisler; in the latter case I shall, for very sound reasons, probably give up my co-authorship. Work on the project is decreasing; I hope Max and I will finally get around to our things. I am putting the finishing touches to the 3rd part of the book of aphorisms. A shorter piece of mine⁷ is appearing in the yearbook Psychoanalysis and Social Science.

The man who wrote the review of the (atrocious!!) book by Friedel is a good acquaintance of mine.⁸

Norah, who is just about to leave for Europe, will call you (if she has not already done so), as also will Redvers in a few weeks. Today a highly talented young Englishman⁹ is speaking to a small group of us about his sociological theory of the novel.

I am well, am lively and in good condition, and hope that the depressive phase has been entirely overcome; am also taking the housing crisis calmly. I shall probably have to go to S.F. again in mid-June, but that is rather welcome now.

Would it not make things easier for you if we typed our letters? Look after yourself, my animal, and have a fine thorough holiday.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

1  Siegfried Kracauer’s book From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film had been published in April by Princeton University Press.

2  Redvers Opie’s wife, née Taussig.

3  fellowship: EO.

4  Unknown.

5  Karplus und Herzberger, the company owned by Gretel Adorno’s father.

6  The Austrian writer Friedrich Torberg (1908–1979), who became known in 1930 through his novel Der Schüler Gerber hat absolviert [The Pupil Gerber has Graduated], lived as an emigrant first in Los Angeles, then later in New York.

7  It had presumably been planned that Adorno’s lecture ‘Social Science and Sociological Tendencies in Psychoanalysis’, given in San Francisco in 1946 (see letter no. 158, note 1), would be published; this did not happen.

8  Eric Bentley (b. 1916), a student of Brecht and Eisler, whose review had appeared in the New York Times Book Review on 18 May; no further information was found regarding Adorno’s contact with Bentley.

9  Ian Watt (1917–99), who had studied in Cambridge and, of his seven years as a soldier in the Second World War, was forced to spend three in a Japanese camp on the River Kwai, held a fellowship at the University of California in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1948. From 1952 to 1962 he taught at Berkeley, then – following some years in England – in Stanford. – His ‘theory of the novel’ appeared in 1957 under the title The Rise of the Novel.

184  LOS ANGELES, 13.6.1947

13 June 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

naturally we shall type our letters from now on, so that you will not have to strain your eyes so much in attempting to decipher our scribblings. As for you, however, please write in pencil.

A thousand thanks for the cheque, I will use it to buy myself a nice black belt. My birthday this year was the nicest in a long time. I also received magnificent gifts, in particular from Archie: a new carriage, as he calls it, a real automobile, a dark blue four door¹ sedan with 8 cylinders. We are both incredibly proud of it. The night before we had the Horkheimers and Lily Latté here for dinner, and ate farmed pheasant (I cannot find any wild ones here, sadly). On Tuesday we ate out with Lang and Lily. Giraffe was also given a giraffe-shawl, a fountain pen and a pretty black snakeskin bag.

Otherwise a great deal of work again, and Archie’s associates from Berkeley are coming here for a day. It would be unwise to buy our half of the house, much too expensive and difficult to resell. We will just have to wait and see how the situation develops.

Many hugs and kisses

from your old

Giraffe

Marinumba my animal,

The car is a brand-new, very pretty and powerful Ford, and very difficult to get hold of; we only managed to acquire it through our good connections in the almighty film industry. We are having a lovely time with it, driving a great deal and far – lately in San Pedro, for example, the very remote outside port of Los Angeles. Are cheerful and in good shape, also in our work. Max and I have finally got back our own things properly, though we are still not free of our Jewish project and the accompanying administration. I will probably have to go to S.F. again in July, but that has now lost its sting. C. will probably go to Reno in August, and we expect to meet with her in September during our holiday near Lake Tahoe. I am afraid the chance of coming to N.Y. is slim at the moment, as the whole Jewish project is coming to an end, but this could change at any time. This week the whole Berkeley gang is coming here for a meeting of the Social Science Research Council (Rockefeller), to which Max and I have also been invited: for its West Coast director, Harold Jones, is my co-director from the children’s project. But we (Max and I) are occupying ourselves with it primarily to clear the decks, so that we can devote ourselves to our big new project as far as possible. I have gone through the proofs of our book, which is in the process of being published, with the untiring assistance of Lix (he has separated from his wife once and for all and is very happy about it). As for the film book, the Oxford press was very understanding: I will be mentioned very emphatically in the foreword, but not as the official co-author. It is a shame, as I in fact not only wrote, but also conceived, 90% of it; but it is still better this way. If my ‘co-author’ had been a little more loyal, he would have been the one to step down in the light of the true situation. But he is too vain for that, and on the other hand I can understand that, in his position, the publication of a purely scientific book under his name must be very important to him; and, after all, it was he who originally had the contract. So, let us leave it at that. You will receive it as soon as it is in print; it looks thoroughly decent in every respect. Except that film music is ultimately too limited and indifferent a subject to warrant an entire book. I did, however, incorporate various more peripheral matters that interested me.

Hopefully your good round hippo eyes are remaining somewhat stable! Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: handwritten letter.

1  four door: EO.

185  LOS ANGELES, 6.7.1947

6 July 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

you must not be angry at us for taking a little longer to write this time. There were such piles of work – the big Berkeley manuscript has finally gone off to New York, almost a thousand pages – and after that I had an especially heavy migraine attack as a result of the overwhelming strain. The only thing that can help then is complete rest, lying in the open as much as possible, but today I am sufficiently better at least to imagine lively horse-jumps again. We have no news, Archie and Max are having the preliminary meetings for their next book and are both very happy about it. You are going away soon now; I hope you have a lovely summer in Rhinebeck. It has now been one year since poor Oscar departed from us, dear, dear Hippo Cow.

Many hugs and kisses

from your lanky Giraffe

My dears old faithful Wondrous Hippo Cow,

this is just a little sign to tell you that I am thinking of it – of 8 July. In fact, I can still not quite believe that it is truly and irrevocably the case – and how this day must feel for you after a whole lifetime together. All my thoughts are with you, and I dearly hope that the sorrowful memory turns into a happy one of all that once was. – I have nothing new to report except what Giraffe wrote. The more the external (Berkeley) projects recede the more I enjoy the things that really matter to us. We spent the evening of the 4th of July¹ at the Kortners; he has become rather attached to me. Giraffe is gradually getting back to normal. Max got through a very unpleasant attack of gout in good spirits. At the Eislers yesterday; I am very sorry for him, although the manner in which he draws profit from his misfortune, so to speak, is not exactly to my taste.

How are your dear golden Hippo Cow eyes faring? Hopefully you can escape the New York heat, which is presumably quite terrible now, and enjoy a decent recovery at your familiar location. Our car is running nicely; we are having a great deal of fun with it.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1 4th of July: EO.

186  LOS ANGELES, 11.7.1947

11 July 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

here are just a few lines to greet you in Rhinebeck. I hope you had a good journey. I am glad that you are out of the New York heat, have a proper rest, my animal.

Archie is in good health, he is obediently devouring his tablets and vitamins, but otherwise gives little thought to his stomach. It is especially nice that he and Max are eagerly conducting the preliminary meetings for their new study; it is doing both of them a world of good.

Today I enclose a letter from Helenchen that might interest you, as well as a few envelopes with our address. I am sending the Adornos everything I can, and have also asked Lottchen to help with some clothes; she is a little smaller than myself, so her things will probably fit little Agathe better than mine. Lix’s divorce is proceeding in the style of an operetta, he appears in the newspapers now and again, initially even with his picture, and is very proud of it.

Lotte and E plan to come here on 8 August and stay for a week – I am looking forward with great suspense to the arrival of my little sister, whom I have now not seen in almost 6 years.

Many hugs and kisses from

your lanky

Giraffe

My dears Hippo Cow animal,

welcome to Rhinebeck. Today just this brief but doubly warm greeting upon your arrival.

I do, at least, have some news. As additional work alongside my duties at the institute, I have taken on a teaching post¹ at a newly founded college in La Habra (roughly 35 miles from here) in all composition subjects, i.e. harmony, counterpoint with fugue, musical form and free composition – have to teach there for one day a week. I find it very enjoyable to take on some musical responsibility again in this manner, and to teach young people. I do not have to restrict my activities to music, incidentally, but can also teach sociology and philosophy there. Max will also take on an analogous appointment² there, assuming his health, which is still erratic, permits it. I have already signed the contract.

Rudi turned up here a few days ago; he is spending (together with his wife) the summer in the area – i.e. about 70 miles from here – at his sister Mitzi’s place.³ We were very happy to see each other. Sadly the distance, which in relative terms is actually very great, 4 hours there and back, makes it impossible for us to see as much of each other as we would like, unless he manages to find something suitable in Hollywood or out here. He is in better shape than he was last time, only strangely gaunt. His wife appeals to me less and less, but it is generally a problem with the new wives of old friends, and it is difficult to remain fair.

Enjoy a good rest, my animal, and above all make sure you do not expose yourself to the sun without some protection. Do you wear tinted glasses to protect those good Hippo Cow eyes?

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  In its Bulletin no. 1 of September 1947, Los Angeles University of Applied Education, La Habra, California, does indeed list Adorno as a teacher of music theory and composition. The college, however, or at least its music department, closed soon afterwards.

2  appointment: EO.

3  Lorna Kolisch was Rudolf Kolisch’s second wife; his sister Mitzi was Gertrud Schoenberg (1898–1967), the second wife of the composer Arnold Schoenberg.

187  LOS ANGELES, 21.7.1947

21 July 1947

My dearest Hippo Sow,

how nice that you are enjoying yourself in Rhinebeck, you just make sure to rest up well, my animal. I am very gradually feeling better, after having another migraine attack that was even stronger than the first; we all get older.

Luli suddenly appeared with four dogs, two Afghans and two puppies; sadly, Baba is already getting a little stiff – I try to tell myself that he is missing our love.

Today I enclose a letter Norah sent from Switzerland that might interest you; I wish I (or rather we) were in Engadin in her stead.

I am very stupid and can think of nothing to tell you, which is also a result of my genuinely not seeing anybody and lying out in the open as much as possible, forgive your stupid Giraffe.

Many hugs and kisses

from your Gretel

My Wondrous Sow,

I too, owing to a complete lack of anything worth telling, can only wish you the very finest of holidays and send you a thousand greetings. I am well, currently working at a slightly more relaxed pace, and Giraffe is also taking things easy, and is already feeling well rested. I was in downtown Los Angeles with Fritz today (about 1 hour’s drive from here!!), incredibly hot. Hopefully it is pleasantly cool and friendly where you are. Heartiest kisses

from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

188  LOS ANGELES, 7.8.1947

7 August 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

so, on Friday Lottchen and E. are to arrive here, after six years I am certainly very excited about seeing her. They want to spend a week in Santa Monica, I am sure it will be quite lovely, and then they can also tell you a little about our life. As it has meanwhile become genuinely hot, I suddenly decided to work a little less for a while and take a daily swim in the sea. It is doing me a world of good: my appetite has increased, I look quite brown and feel much fresher, and sometimes I even get Archie to accompany me. We see quite a lot of the Kolischs, Rudi is in very good shape, and he and Teddie have resumed proper contact again; the wife does not get in the way too much, at least, it is only bothersome that we always have to speak English. On Sunday we took a slow stroll along the sea with Aladdadinchen (the new car) and ended up in San Diego (137 miles from our house). So I can drive 250 miles a day without any trouble, which is very important for our planned holiday trip to Lake Tahoe in up state¹ California, not so very far from San Francisco, though we are unlikely to pass through there. We will leave after Labor Day and only return at the end of the month, as we are both in need of a rest, and above all some fresh air and walking. We shall pick up the Horkheimers in half an hour to take them to dinner at a particularly good fish restaurant situated in the middle of the sea.

How are you taking to Rhinebeck, are you resting well, my animal? How are those dear eyes faring?

Hugs and kisses

from your old Giraffe

Gretel

My dears little Wondrous Hippo Sow,

Giraffe has already taken all the ‘news’² away from me, so there is nothing left for me to do but express my love. I completed the draft for another theoretical chapter for the Berkeley project. Yesterday evening with Kolisch at the Maaskoffs late into the night, a very interesting discussion. I go to the sea with Giraffe whenever I can, and it is very good for me. The long tour on Sunday was especially nice – we got as far as the Mexican border and drank good coffee in a bathing resort called Karlsbad.

Hopefully you are as well as I am right now – then I would be very happy. And are you not too lonely? And how are you faring with your English? (There are times when I am full to the back teeth of that language.)

Have a thorough rest and take care of yourself, my dear animal, I love you so very much. Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1 up state: EO.

2 ‘news’: EO.

189  LOS ANGELES, 26.8.1947

26 August 1947

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

so, Lottchen and E were here – you will have received our card¹ by now – and we had a very enjoyable time together. I think Lotte has developed in truly excellent fashion, she has become much more independent and mature, and I am very proud of my little sister. They are both very enterprising and thus appear very young, not like us settled folk. Sadly they only stayed for a week, as they still planned to visit some friends in the Rockies. – We are finally going on holiday too at the start of next week, the address is: Tahoe Cedars Lodge, Tahoma P.O. Lake Tahoe, Calif. It is our first more substantial car journey, and I am very curious to see how I will cope. We will drive there in two days, so as to reach that other kind of air as soon as possible, but on the way back we shall take a little more time, and also plan to have a look at a few especially attractive places along the coast. – Tomorrow we shall have the opportunity to watch a very old Lang film, ‘Der müde Tod’; I wonder how one will like it after 26 years?

But how are you, my animal? What do you do all day? How is the weather? Do the people there treat you well, and what sort of summer guests are there these days?

You take good care of yourself, with many hugs and kisses from your old Giraffe

Gretel

My dears faithful old Hippo Cow beast,

this little greeting amid heaps of work – finishing off lots of trivial matters before the holidays. Tout va bien. Among other things, I had a very cordial letter from the publisher Siebeck,² who had published the Kierkegaard book: it continued to be sold, even under the Nazis, and in the last few years actually very well, a strange feeling. The film music book has come out, without my name on the title page, but with all

‘credit’³ in the foreword I myself formulated,⁴ and looks very decent.

A foolish letter from Helene de Bary.⁵ Otherwise I cannot think of any other news at all, except that Max’s and my joint project is proceeding very well once more, and are very sorry to have to interrupt it.

We heard from Julie, to our joy, that you are resting well and being duly spoilt. If only we could join you. Make sure to stay long enough, my animal, that you do not still get caught in the New York heat – there is apparently a heat wave moving towards there from the Midwest precisely now.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  Not preserved.

2  The letter was not preserved among Adorno’s belongings. Adorno replied to the publisher on the same day he wrote to his mother:

Dear Herr Doktor,

your friendly words of 5 August were a great joy to me. It is difficult to describe the feeling that came over me upon hearing something about the fate of my book again after all these years, let alone that this hardly very accessible text had peacefully continued its existence during the downfall of the world to which it belonged, while I myself was living 6000 miles away. I feel a sincere need to thank you for looking after my ideas so faithfully. Did the Nazis really never make any official efforts to prevent the distribution of the Kierkegaard book?

Please accept my deepest thanks for your information regarding future publications. Under the circumstances you refer to, I hardly think that now would be a favourable time for the very large book of aphorisms I mentioned to you. I could, however, make a different suggestion.

A few years ago I wrote a treatise entitled ‘Zur Philosophie der neuen Musik’. This study concludes, in a certain sense, my efforts regarding the aesthetics of modern music, and at the same time is very closely connected to my philosophical intentions. It would yield a booklet of under 100 printed pages, for which the paper should be easily obtainable; I recall that you previously also published philosophical booklets such as the one by Tillich on Goethe and Hegel. The treatise, though decidedly philosophical in nature, is not as extravagantly difficult as the Kierkegaard. It is unimaginable that a board of censors might have any objections.

If there were a genuine chance of printing the booklet, I would – after returning from my holidays at the start of October – make a series of additions that I now consider absolutely necessary. I would then like to send you two finished copies. But first I would like to know whether the sending of printed manuscripts to the French zone from abroad is now allowed, and whether there would be a good chance of publication, as I

would not like to expose the two copies to the risks of such a journey in vain. I am sure you will understand that.

With the most cordial regards

your devoted (typescript copy in the Theodor W. Adorno Archiv)

3  ‘credit’: EO.

4  In the German version, the passage in question reads: ‘As far as the present book is concerned, my thanks are due above all to T. W. Adorno, who directed the musical part of a different Rockefeller study, the Princeton Radio Research Project. The questions he examined are closely connected to those of film in social, musical and even technological terms. The theories and formulations presented here came about through collaboration in general aesthetic areas, as well as sociological and purely musical ones’ (quoted from Theodor W. Adorno and Hanns Eisler, Komposition für den Film, critical edition by Eberhardt Klemm [Leipzig, 1977], pp. 27f.).

5  She was a member of a family of Calvinists who had originally moved to Frankfurt from Bari, near Tournai, in 1555, and worked as merchants and bankers. The de Bary family founded the Vereinigung von Welschen zur Regelung der Geldkurse [Francophone Union for the Regulation of Buying Rates] with the de Neufvilles and the du Fays. Translator’s note: the term Welsche is broad, referring to peoples such as the French Swiss and the originally Celtic (as in ‘Welsh’) inhabitants of Alpine regions in Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria, as well as some in other Romance countries. While its meaning thus varies between a number of Romance and Celtic ethno-lingual contexts, its application here to the aforementioned families would seem to make ‘Francophone’ the least misleading equivalent.

190 LAKE TAHOE, 4.9.1947

Tahoe Cedars Lodge, Lake Tahoe

4 Sept. 1947.

My Wondrous Hippo Cow,

arrived and settled in well after a smooth journey, mostly through the desert. It is truly beautiful here, as blue as Italy and infinitely peaceful. A shame that you were not able to take the boat around the whole lake with us today. Forgive the writing, I do not have the typewriter here. Heartiest kisses from your child Teddie

Dear Hippo Cow, the typewriter might have seduced Archie into working – that had to be prevented. Here we are having our first real holiday in 6 years. Hugs from your old Giraffe

Original: picture postcard: Scenic Drive – Lake Tahoe; stamp: TAHOMA, SEP 5. Manuscript.

191 LAKE TAHOE, 11.9.1947

Lake Tahoe, 11 Sept. 1947

My gigantic Hippo Cow, we are celebrating my birthday in the restaurant ‘Sportsman’ in Truckee, where they serve real game, are awaiting our wild duck, enjoying ourselves immeasurably and thinking of you with all our love. Heartiest kisses from your child Teddie.

This is the loveliest birthday in years. We are having a good rest, taking many walks and thinking a great deal of our dear Wondrous Hippo Cow. Hugs and kisses from your Giraffe

Original: picture postcard: Donner Lake, Calif. and Highway U.S. 40; stamp: TAHOMA, SEP 12. Manuscript.

192 LAKE TAHOE, c. 14.9.1947

Tahoe Cedars Lodge

Tahoma, P.O.

LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA

My dears Hippo Cow,

today I shall do my best to write in big letters so that you can read better. I am glad that you returned to New York without any problems; hopefully the heat will soon let up over there. – On Friday evening – we were already in bed – we suddenly received a telephone call that Mr Kolisch was 18 miles away, and indeed Rudi and Lorna were there in 1½2 an hour. We had a delightful day with them, even went swimming in the clear, cold lake, ate at the good game restaurant in the evening, then they drove on to Reno and we went home. Rudi saw Anita in San Francisco, the old Seligmanns have already gone to Switzerland. – If the weather stays fine (fingers crossed) and nothing else gets in the way, we will stay here until the 25th and should be back in Los Angeles on the 29th.

Many hugs and kisses from your old

Giraffe

My Wondrous Animal, I am glad that you arrived at home safe and sound! Take good care with the heat and get used to things again. We are having our most relaxing time since Bar Harbor – today a four-hour journey high into the mountains. We had the greatest fun with Rudi, as you can imagine. Take care of yourself my Mumma with heartiest kisses from your old Hippo King Archie

Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.

On the dating: according to a note, Maria Wiesengrund received this letter on 17September.

193 VIRGINIA CITY, 17.9.1947

Virginia City, 17 Sept. 47

My Hippo Cow, this unspeakable opera house¹ that we are visiting at the moment is located in a completely deserted and dilapidated yet once famous gold-diggers’ nest – but Jenny Lind² and Patti³ sang there, and we imagined you standing amid the scenery.⁴ The men had to hand in their revolvers at the cloakroom. Heartiest kisses from your child Teddie

Today is the first fresh day, the air is even better than usual. Kisses from your Giraffe

Original: picture postcard: HISTORIC OLD PIPER OPERA HOUSE BUILT DURING 1880’s, VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA; stamp: VIRGINIA CITY, SEP 17, 1947 (see fig. 6). Manuscript.

1  Piper’s Opera House had its heyday in the 1870s and 1880s, when Virginia City was a rich town, primarily through the silver mines. The building, erected by John Piper, has been undergoing restoration since the 1960s; today it is in use again. Nothing is known about the guest performances of Lind and Patti.

2  The Swedish soprano Jenny Lind (1820–87) went on triumphant tours through Europe and America between 1844 and 1858.

3  The Italian soprano Adelina Patti (1843–1919) had gone to America early on with her parents and her sister. She received her musical training from her sister Carlota, also a singer and a pianist – as with the sisters Agathe Calvelli-Adorno and Maria Wiesengrund – and gave her first concert performance in New York in 1850; her debut was as Lucia in Donizetti’s opera in 1859. Adelina Patti sang the title role in the premiere of Verdi’s Aida. She was extremely famous, and received considerable sums for her appearances.

4  During the 1884–5 season, from 3 November to 15 January, Maria Calvelli-Adorno guested with Adelina Patti’s ensemble in North America; Adorno is alluding to that tour, which took her as far as San Francisco.

194 LAKE TAHOE, 24.9.1947

Tahoe Cedars Lodge

Chambers P.O.

LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA

24 September 47

My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,

a thousand thanks for your letter – we were already concerned not to have heard from you so long after your return, and are all the happier to hear that you are well. The heat should finally have exhausted itself by now – the coming days are usually the finest in N.Y. Enjoy the autumn sitting down by the Hudson, my animal.

My last letter was already the reply to the one you sent for my birthday, and I am truly sorry if that was not absolutely clear. En tout cas I thank you once more for all your wishes.

When we return from our trip it will be your 82nd birthday – Goethe’s age. Our best possible wishes on that occasion, and continue to burrow your way through the mass of years as courageously as you have so far, so that you become an

ANCIENT WONDROUS HIPPO COW LADY

And above all, make sure you remain in good health, especially without any trouble with those good mother eyes. That is what I wish you more than anything else. And myself: that I might see you again very soon.

Our holidays were the loveliest since Bar Harbor, in fact since Europe. You cannot imagine the beauty of the Sierras, and especially that of this very large, deep blue and green mountain lake. We enjoyed it in every way: very long hikes in the mountains (including one to a pasture with cows with bells like in the Alps), very big car tours (sometimes 200 miles in one day), much lying about in the open, playing ping-pong, sleeping our fill. We are both very well rested.

Charlotte did not appear, although she must (if she genuinely went away to get divorced, in Nevada) be fairly close. Et si déjà.

Tomorrow we are going back home at a very leisurely pace, in 4 days, via Sacramento and later along the ocean. We want to spend a whole day on the famous Monterey peninsula (Carmel etc.). We expect to reach Los Angeles sometime on Monday. Max, who was in Oregon, is coming on Tuesday. La Habra only starts in mid-October.

Lily Latté, who is truly a very close friend of ours, is thinking of going to N.Y. in the first days of October. If she does, it goes without saying that she will call you. She is one of the very few friends in the true sense that we have found in America. An enchantingly graceful and personally absolutely reliable person whom you are sure to like a great deal. Gretel and Lily are inseparable; I am not involved with her, so you need not get any silly ideas. The best of company, very elegant; and yet totally unpretentious. You must only know that she is the partner – virtually the wife – of Fritz Lang, the most famous German film director, who is also incredibly successful here. So receive her kindly, you will enjoy yourself.

And now farewell, my animal, and remember that I will be with you with all my soul on 1 October.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

My dears Wondrous Hippo Cow,

let me send you, with all my heart, the best and fondest wishes on your 82nd birthday, may you remain in good health and your poor eyes improve. – Everything is already packed here, and we are just about to get an early night so that we are fit for the long drive tomorrow. Leaving here is incredibly hard for both of us.

Many hugs and kisses from your lanky

Giraffe Gazelle

Original: handwritten letter with printed letterhead.

195 SANTA MARIA, 28.9.1947

28 September 1947

My Giant Hippo Cow, this is the final stage of our return journey, which has been extremely pleasant – named in honour of you. Among other things, we saw some healthy 5000-year-old giant trees near Santa Cruz that reminded me very much of you. Get your 83rd off to a good start. Tomorrow we will be home again, in the evening at Lang’s place for Lily’s farewell. A thousand kisses from your child Teddie

Only another 160 miles to Los Angeles. Many kisses from your lanky Giraffe

Original: photo postcard: Santa Maria Inn / Santa Maria, California / On the Mission Trail / ‘It is always blossom time at the Santa Maria Inn’; stamp: SANTA MARIA, SEP 29, 1947. Manuscript.

196  LOS ANGELES, 18.10.1947

18 October 1947

My dearest Hippo Cow,

it is terrible, we have once again not written for a considerable time, but only because there is nothing to tell. Archie has truly made a good recovery and also seems to have saved up his strength to a degree, whereas I am finding it incredibly difficult to readjust to the mild climate and have almost constant headaches, more or less severely.

– Herbert Marcuse from the institute, who is currently in the State Department in Washington, however, was here, and there were some quite interesting discussions. Norah – who has meanwhile gone back to her daughter in Mexico, whose restaurant is apparently doing superbly, by the way –, Thomas Mann, Charlotte Dieterle spoke a great deal about the European impressions, how Switzerland is so eerily unchanged, that the Germans are saying the Jews were crafty once again and got out in time – it has already been forgotten that they were driven out and murdered – that England is essentially unchanged, but in the positive sense. – I enclose a letter from Franz that should interest you, and which I would also ask Julie to read. Archie still has to reply to it, so please send it back.

Many hugs and kisses from

Your old Giraffe

Gretel

My little Hippo Sow,

today just a thousand greetings and hearty kisses amid piles of work for the institute. Take care of yourself, my animal. Absolutely nothing new. Lily is quite ill, otherwise she would have called you!

The very fondest regards

ever your Teddie

Original: typewritten letter with additional handwritten note by Adorno.

197  LOS ANGELES, 28.10.1947

Los Angeles, 28 October 1947

My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow Marinumba,

last night we were at Lang’s place for dinner when Lily called us from New York and told us about her visit with you (apparently with Lotte and E!). As happy as I am that you had a pleasant afternoon together, I was distressed by what she told me about your eyes and above all your hearing. If you can neither read for long nor even listen to the radio – then what do you do the livelong day, my animal? I must urgently advise you to get yourself one of those modern, outstanding ‘hearing aids’.¹ It was a great help to old Frau Steuermann, for example. The price is not an issue, need not be an issue, must not be an issue. I will not have a peaceful moment until I know that your contact with the outside world is restored in a manner that allows you the necessary comforts. Please discuss it immediately with Julie, and do not make excuses. Otherwise, Lily thought that you were in good shape, mobile, and not fat, and I am glad. But how much does that count for compared to the severe impairment of the most important senses.

Lily also told me that you were living, as it were, from one letter of mine to the next. My animal, if I sometimes refrain from writing, it is neither because I wish to keep anything terrible from you (for neither is there anything terrible in my life nor do I keep anything from you – I even informed you about Charlotte), nor because I have forgotten you out of egotism. But quite simply – because there is often nothing, truly nothing at all to report. I always have long weeks that are entirely full of work, with Max and alone; sometimes I hardly see anyone, nothing worth reporting occurs – and I do not really wish to feed you with my partly extremely difficult theoretical matters. So understand my silence, then – and I will greet you with hippo grunts as often as I possibly can, even if there is no other content (though I will hardly be able to compete with Charlotte’s letters as regards lack of content).

Yesterday up at Lang’s place the servant suddenly came in – a stag that devours the most delicate flowers in the garden and tramples over everything each night had ventured as far as the lawn. We immediately rushed out to see it, but naturally it was faster than we were – all we found were the giant, entirely fresh hoof-prints. It was an especially pleasant evening.

Now for your questions. Luli: I enclose her last letter, which is very characteristic, and would ask you to send it back. The poor girl – evidently she never truly recovered from the encephalitis she had a few years ago. Norah’s mother is back in her villa in Ronco, near Ascona, supposedly for good, but she is already travelling through Europe with her royal household, and it is very possible that she might return here – she kept her insanely expensive apartment here. She is quite remarkable – a shame you do not know her. A member of the Wertheimber family. I received a letter from Helene de Bary, incidentally, but did not respond, as her father turned out to be a rabid Nazi. – The old Seligmans have also definitely gone back to Switzerland. Mietze fell out completely with Norah, is also a little peeved at us because we are on good terms with Norah (and deeper down – because she was unable to reshuffle and remarry all of us); but still friendly with old Frau Hahn; took her to the train in Zurich. Charlotte has been at Pyramid Lake in Nevada since 20 September, not at all far from Lake Tahoe, we did not see each other – but I did receive a highly unexpected letter a few days ago. She will be divorced in a few days, will be back in S.F. on 2 November and Robert can marry Anita if he wants (he does not especially want to). So, my animal, now you know everything. Krenek is here, very pleasant. They asked me about Else – but I did not have anything definite to tell them. Do you know anything? He has written a new symphony² that I intensely dislike.

Mumma, I am not planning to return to Germany in the long run, for brief visits at the most – so you need not worry about that. But it would be unwise to tell Franz that. The threat of my return exerts a certain pressure in our business matters. – There is no risk of war whatsoever – it is all a war of nerves.³ I am making great efforts to ensure that I can turn up in N.Y. in the not too distant future, but do not yet know when or whether it will be possible. So keep your fingers crossed for us, my animal.

I started in La Habra; there are only a few students, but as the college has now been acknowledged by the Veterans Administration, that should change very soon. I am there every Wednesday.

Heartiest kisses from your

old Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  ‘hearing aids’: EO.

2  The Fourth Symphony, op. 113.

3  war of nerves: EO.

198  LOS ANGELES, 4.11.1947

Los Angeles, 4 November 1947

My dears faithful old Wondrous Hippo Cow,

a thousand thanks for your lengthy letter. It would have made me very happy if – if Lily had not told me some things you said to her, and especially to Lotte, which do not at all correspond to the picture you paint in your letter, such as the gravest problems of eyesight. Restriction to 20 minutes’ reading time per day and in particular also such a decline in your hearing that you can no longer really listen to the radio. Lily thought that you deny these things in order ‘not to burden me with them’. If that is the case, then it is certainly infinitely heroic and well meant, but really very foolish. For one thing, I cannot have a moment’s peace until you have sworn me a solemn oath (on the life of the great Luiche!) to tell me truly how you are; but then we can only discuss what can reasonably be done if you lay your cards on the table. So: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

The Galsworthy¹ is superior trash; save your eyes for something better, my animal. Golde is very good-natured, but dreadfully stupid. – From Luli a second letter that possibly even exceeds the fears you voiced. Her manner of first making all sorts of gifts, then taking them back, is itself a highly disconcerting symptom. You are an astute old Hippo Sow to tell that from the letter.

The start in La Habra (where I have to go for the whole day tomorrow) is extremely modest, as are the students, who do not even know the different keys properly, but as the college has meanwhile been officially acknowledged by the Veterans Administration, things should get moving properly after Christmas. For the meantime I only have 2 lessons per week.

Tonight at the preview of Lang’s new film² with Lily (we celebrated her return at L’s on Saturday). Otherwise nothing new. Max and I are incredibly tied up with piles of technical work for the institute. But tout va bien, even my newest invention, the hyena³ Jean-François,⁴ who can speak.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  It is unknown which novel by the English writer John Galsworthy (1867–1933) Maria Wiesengrund was reading.

2  This is Secret Beyond the Doors.

3  Translator’s note: in the original, Adorno writes ‘der Hyäne’ (masculine), deliberately contradicting the correct form ‘die Hyäne’ (feminine), evidently for humorous purposes.

4  The name of Adorno’s maternal grandfather.

199  LOS ANGELES, 10.11.1947

Los Angeles, 10 November 1947

My dears faithful old Hippo Cow animal,

a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter. It is, through its solemn oath, a great reassurance to me. Have your eyes improved as a result of the treatment or by themselves? Eyesight is often connected to blood pressure, incidentally.

We are living and working quietly. Max and I wrote a substantial essay¹ within a week, which was made possible by dividing it up between us. Aside from that, I have also nearly finished a ‘manual’² on the tricks of anti-Semitic agitators.³

Only Fritz and I have officially taken jobs in La Habra, but Max also wants to read there.

The other night, Kortner took us along to see the ‘young’, in fact already 50-year-old, Schildkraut,⁴ the son of the actor you so esteemed. On Saturday I played him and Kortner the second part – the Faust scene – of Mahler’s 8th Symphony.

Charlotte is now divorced, but also from me – – – I did not respond to her last letter.

Otherwise I can really not think of anything to tell. Hopefully the transition to the cold season in New York is not too abrupt, so that the gigantic Hippo Cow organism can adjust in good time. Do be very careful – these weeks are always risky on ‘Pneumonia Hill’.

Heartiest kisses my animal

from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  Presumably ‘Authoritarianism and the Family Today’, which appeared in 1949 in the volume The Family: Its Function and Destiny, ed. Ruth Nanda Anshen.

2  ‘manual’: EO.

3  This does not appear to have survived.

4  The actor Joseph Schildkraut (1894/5–1964) was the son of Rudolf Schildkraut (1862–1930), who had started his career as a 14-year-old working for a touring company, appearing on stage in Vienna – where Maria Wiesengrund would have seen and heard him – and Berlin. Rudolf Schildkraut had already gone to America early on; he took on film roles there, but worked mostly in the theatre.

200  LOS ANGELES, 20.11.1947

LOS ANGELES UNIVERSITY

OF APPLIED EDUCATION

LA HABRA, CALIFORNIA

20 November 1947

Marinumba, my Hippo Cow-Sow,

a thousand thanks for your lengthy letter of the 15th. Your writing looks much better – I am so happy that you genuinely seem to be better. Regarding Kreisler, I agree entirely with you. After all, his success revolved more around the charm of his violinist’s diction than a truly meaningful capacity for musical representation. Now that he has lost that charm, like an aged actor, it is particularly clear. Incidentally, Kreisler showed very little loyalty during Hitler’s reign.

I am writing to you today on La Habra paper – I received the first instalment of my salary yesterday (they are still very short on money). But it is a lot of fun, and my students are making noticeable progress.

We spent a long time at Luli’s place, for the first time since her severe illness. She still looks wretched, but was otherwise in good shape and more delightful than ever. I am sure that Lily, who is incredibly jealous of her, gave you an entirely false impression of her – for all her flaws, there are very few people who are as close to me as she is. – Baba has grown terribly old and lethargic – only recognized us after quite some time. I fear his spine is paralysed, as our old Wölfchen’s also was in the end. But still an angel. Luli carries him into the car.

Thomas Mann’s novel has come out. In the copy he sent me he wrote: ‘For Theodor Adorno, the High Privy Councillor’. Charming, don’t you think?

On Sunday Robert called from S.F., spoke for almost an hour, quite desperate. He is divorced, but does not know if he should marry Anita. This is absolutely between the two of us, my animal!!!

As far as the business partner is concerned, only you can decide that – I for my part can understand it only too well if you would rather remain alone than have someone completely indifferent brought in from without purely for that purpose, but naturally the problems with your eyesight do create special circumstances.

Kortner remembers the Kampen anecdote¹ very well. I cannot judge the young Schildkraut’s ability as an actor; in private I find him a little too chatty.

Keep your fingers crossed, my animal. How I would love to visit you soon.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

If you can manage it at all – go and see the Chaplin film Monsieur Verdoux. It is just your sort of film!! Many kisses

Giraffe

Original: typewritten letter with handwritten postscript and additional handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.

1 For a private publication on the occasion of Fritz Kortner’s seventy-fifth birthday, Adorno wrote:

Dear Herr Kortner

allow me to extend my most heartfelt congratulations to you on your 75th birthday. The admiration I feel towards your art, which unifies unruliness and intelligence in a manner that is so exceedingly rare in the German world, is accompanied by a personal relationship that, to this day, has always shown itself in the most unexpected circumstances. From that summer of 1921, when you were acting in the film Das rote Kliff [The Red Cliff] in Kampen and I played you piano pieces by Schönberg, to the period in which we were neighbours in Los Angeles and our dogs growled at each other, without our own contact ever mirroring their inexplicable behaviour, to that night in the bar of the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, when you found me in a not entirely responsible state, but did not hold the presumably highly irrational stuff I was spouting against me. Things seem to be continuing in the same manner, and I wish not only for you that it should thus continue into ‘the pianissimo of the oldest age’, in Max Weber’s words, but also at least as much for myself. But above all, I wish that you might retain that explosive force through which you, standing in the middle of the German and Austrian theatre industry, ensure that it does not become an industry (cited from the typescript copy among Adorno’s belongings)

201  LOS ANGELES, after 30.11.1947

INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

429 WEST 117TH STREET

NEW YORK, N.Y.

Tel. UNiversity 4–3200

(Columbia University)

Ext. 276

My dears Hippo Cow,

thank you kindly for your sweet letter. We would rather not say anything to Luli about Ali Baba, for we are, after all, glad for every day he goes on living, and for now he may be indolent, but apparently without pain* – Today letter from England from the Adornos – you will probably have heard from them too. – Meanwhile we ordered some Mahler records from New York for Archie’s birthday and Christmas, the 4th Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde. They are both of moderate quality, but we still have a great deal of fun with them and play them almost daily. – Last week we had two turkey dinners,¹ one on Wednesday on the hill at Lang’s place with the Schildkrauts – who are really quite stupid people – then later we were joined by Kortner, who is on the way to Switzerland right now (he is married to Hanna Hofer). The second one on Saturday at Lix’s with forty people – on Sunday there again to eat leftovers with bones and sweet-and-sour beans. Tomorrow evening to Norah’s place to have a nice quiet evening with her before Christmas, when the Rauschnings² will be moving in with her. So, that is all the news from our industrious but quiet life. You must excuse my true Berlin daftness.

Hugs and kisses

from your lanky

Giraffe

Marinumba my animal,

today just a few lines. We had two pleasant Thanksgiving celebrations, the first at Lang’s with Lily, the Schildkrauts and Kortner, until 3 a.m.; then Saturday at Lix’s with an enormous company of 42 people, the most of them like ourselves from the Jewish Club.³ You can pretty much imagine it.

Keep your fingers crossed, as you promised so dearly. It will still take a while, but I am hopeful.

Did you read Virgil Thomson’s review⁴ in the Herald of Eisler’s film music book (which I in fact wrote)? You would have enjoyed it. Unfortunately the translation of the book is very modest. I have meanwhile received offers for Italian and Dutch editions,⁵ and there will be more. We will be seeing Lou Eisler for the first time in a while on Saturday. Hanns is in N.Y.

Did you hear the Philharmonic play the 4th Symphony by Krenek⁶ on Sunday, and what is your impression? I do not wish to bias you.

For Christmas, Giraffe gave me the Bruno Walter recordings of Mahler’s 4th Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde. The performances are very bad – upon closer listening, Walter is exactly what I always took him to be, namely a skilled, but smudgy, unmusical and essentially quite inferior conductor. But everything is set so wonderfully that he cannot entirely lay waste to it, and I am glad to have it, and listen to it a great deal. The singer in Das Lied von der Erde, Kullmann⁷ by name, is admittedly dreadful. As if you were trying to imitate him. E.g. ‘ist merr wärt, ist merr wärt, ist merr wärt’ etc.⁸ Why does music always have to be made by such brutes?

We had a sweet letter from Franz and Helenchen from England, where they are visiting the brood. We are feeding them amply with packages, a classic case of sausage and a side of bacon.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

On the dating: Thanksgiving Day was on 27 November 1947.

1  turkey dinners: EO.

2  Hermann Rauschning (1887–1982), who was politically initially a follower of the Nazis and a confidant of Hitler, had resigned from his post as senate president of Danzig, which he had gained in 1933, in November 1934 and gone into exile in 1936; he published two books, which were widely read as internal views of the Nazi dictatorship: Die Revolution des Nihilismus (1938) and above all Gespräche mit Hitler [Conversations with Hitler] (1939). Rauschning had gone to the USA in 1941, following stays in Switzerland, France and England.

3  Jewish Club: EO.

4  It was not possible to view a copy of this article.

5  It is rather peculiar that the offers were made to Adorno, who had withdrawn his name as co-author.

6  The premiere was conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896–1960), who was still director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra at the time, but went to the New York Philharmonic in 1949.

7  The New Haven-born tenor Charles Kullmann (1903–83), who since 1931 had also sung in Berlin, Vienna and Salzburg, was a celebrated singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

8  In the first song – ‘Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde’ [The Drinking-Song of the Earth’s Moaning] – the line goes: ‘Ein voller Becher Weins zur rechten Zeit ist mehr wert, ist mehr wert, ist mehr wert, als alle Reiche dieser Erde’ [A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more, is worth more, is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth].

202  LOS ANGELES, 11.12.1947

11 December 1947

My dears Hippo Cow,

it is so sweet of you that you always reply to our letters so promptly, and we can read them quite superbly, hopefully you are not straining your poor eyes too much. – We do not own a copy of the Thomson review either, only read through it quickly, so unfortunately we cannot send it to you. – As Norah’s dog, a terrier, died here during her trip to Europe, she has now got hold of a new one, four months old, which she showed me yesterday; it is very cute, but naturally no comparison to a little Afghan. – If we do not write anything about our stupid health that simply means that we are feeling fine, touch wood. The Pollocks have meanwhile bought themselves an old house, as they had some trouble here with their master builder from New York, and aside from that are also afraid of being evacuated from their current provisional apartment. We have not seen it yet, but it is situated in a nice area where we often used to take Baba for walks; they hope to move in in January.

Keep taking care of yourself, my animal, with hugs and kisses

from your old

Giraffe

Marinumba my animal,

we are having a somewhat hectic time at the moment, as Max is going to San Francisco on business tomorrow, then on to New York from there, likewise regarding the projects, and there has still been endless stuff to sort out. Max will no doubt give you a call, although his time in N.Y. will be a dreadful rush, but it cannot be avoided. A common acquaintance of ours, the psychoanalyst Simmel (not to be confused with the famous philosopher who has been dead for 30 years), has died, and Max and I have come up with a eulogy¹ for him together, among other things. Also much La Habra – it is more than questionable whether the university will be able to keep going, and that has necessitated many meetings, which admittedly look uncannily like creditors’ assemblies.

Rauschning, whom you asked me about, was a Nazi and senate president in Danzig, and became famous for parting ways with Hitler early on and publishing his conversations with him, the most interesting document for an understanding of Hitler’s true thinking. Rauschning is a very pleasant, albeit arch-reactionary, but privately decent and educated man – it is impossible, of course, to forget what he was.

A few days ago I went with Fritz and Carlota to a concert for the premiere of a wind sextet by the young Rebner,² not bad at all, written with a good ear and good instrumentation; admittedly nothing independent, à la Stravinsky. Outside, a gentleman unknown to me asked me if I was Adorno. It was René Leibowitz,³ from Paris, one of the most talented young composers (Webern pupil), who had sent me some things of his a few years ago in exchange for some of mine – he is now having some of my songs performed in England. An exceedingly pleasant, artistically extremely radical man. He is coming for lunch on Saturday.

Otherwise nothing new. I am adding some nice verses to Mendelssohn’s songs without words, e.g.: ‘Go not into the night, my-hy child, for in thi-his night it is cold’ etc. Do you like that?

Heartiest kisses from your old, old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  Horkheimer gave the speech ‘Ernst Simmel and Freudian Philosophy’ on 13 December at the ‘Memorial Meeting for Ernst Simmel’.

2  Wolfgang Edward Rebner (1910–93) was from Frankfurt; his father was the string quartet leader Adolf Rebner. Wolfgang Rebner had studied with Paul Hindemith at the Hochsches Konservatorium and then in Berlin with Artur Schnabel. He went to England and moved to the USA in 1937, where he worked as an accompanist. From 1940 onwards Rebner worked for the film industry in Hollywood. In 1955 he returned to Germany. The composition Adorno refers to is most likely his Suite für Bläser 1942 [Suite for Wind Instruments 1942] (see Verdrängte Musik. Berliner Komponisten im Exil [Suppressed Music: Berlin Composers in Exile], ed. Habakuk Traber and Elmar Weingarten, Berlin, 1987, p. 316).

3  The composer René Leibowitz (1913–72), who was born in Warsaw and had lived in Paris with his family since 1926, was a highly talented violinist before he turned to composition and conducting. Leibowitz studied first with Schoenberg in Berlin and then with Anton Webern in Vienna. After the Second World War he was the primary advocate of the Schoenberg school in France. Leibowitz wrote several books and conducted on many recordings.

203  LOS ANGELES, 22.12.1947

Los Angeles, 22 December 1947

Marinumba my dearest Hippo Cow animal,

a thousand thanks for your dear letter and all the presents – all of them so lovingly chosen, and apropos presents: a thousand thanks also to Julie for everything. – From now on I shall always be good and write on a separate sheet, not on the back, so that those good Hippo Cow eyes do not have such a hard time.

Our Christmas plans are as follows: Hanna Kortner and Maidon were supposed to come here for duck tomorrow (Tuesday), but Maidon was very suddenly struck with bursitis in the knee and also in the diaphragm, has to lie completely still, and can unfortunately not come; it is still uncertain whether we shall find anyone to replace her. Christmas Eve up with Lang and Lily with quite a large company for a ‘gala dinner’. On Boxing Day at the Palfis. New Year’s Eve two parties, one at Norah’s and one at Fritz’s, whose mother-in-law arrived by aeroplane from Argentina last night. As you see, we are very much in demand. I have a styful of work, but mostly of an editorial nature, and will take things a little easy now.

Robert had a serious car accident, and a few days later his son also did. Charlotte called Maidon on the telephone about it!!!

Otherwise little to report except for a new princess, by the name of Radziwill,¹ née Baroness Brentano, who was also invited when I went up to Luli’s place for lunch on Saturday, pretty and pleasant: a sort of lady-secretary for Luli, who thus finally has a serious and not likewise half-crazed person around her. A few lines from Max; you are sure to hear from him.

Unfortunately I did not hear Mahler’s 6th; and you? Though I doubt that Mitropoulos is up to it. Yesterday at the Eislers, who, despite constant threat of deportation, are extremely well. He is composing a (very pretty) score to be added to Chaplin’s circus film. Our book appears to be selling well. Aside from that, you simply have to imagine me as a sort of living correction pencil. Heartiest kisses, my animal, and once again a thousand thanks, and the very best wishes for the New Year, in case I do not write again before then, from your stupid old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  See letter no. 209, where she is referred to as an impostor.

204  LOS ANGELES, 31.12.1947

31 December 1947

Marinumba my animal,

a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter and the long one from Else,¹ which we enclose here. I am glad that you had a pleasant Christmas; here it was also nice, an exceedingly elegant party chez Lang and Lily, prepared by her with the most touching care, exceptionally good food and drink. Up there for a quiet visit the day after.

As far as Else is concerned, I am sincerely happy that things are bearable for her and that she will evidently soon be able to walk properly again. But my joy at that, as well as at the rekindling of contact with one of your oldest and closest friends, cannot prevent me from detecting the hostile intent with which Gretel and I are demonstratively not mentioned, except for my one appearance as ‘your son’. She is evidently angry that we did not give her any material help – unjustly angry, for we really could not have helped, and I am utterly convinced that even during that time, with the French fortune in the background, she was better off than we were. When you write to her, I think a hint from you would be called for – it can hardly be possible, after all, for her to rekindle her friendship with you and be at war with us. She, who did not even bring her own sister to safety in time and also, aside from that, never showed particular generosity towards myself or Gretel, even in better times, should at least refrain from feigning outrage (naturally you should not mention the latter; I do not want there to be any ill will between you – simply a few words of regret at her behaviour towards us, which is evidently based on an entirely mistaken perception of the circumstances).

And now, my animal, celebrate a merry farewell to the old year and roll forcefully, as the massive Hippo Cow, into the new, which has the mythological 83rd birthday in store for you. I need hardly tell you all my hearty wishes for you – and also myself – least of all what I wish for most. Give dear Julie a thousand greetings from us, and tell her that Else’s wondrous hymns of praise have not made me any less fond of her – in this case at least, Else would be right, factually speaking.

Heartiest kisses from your old child

Teddie

Original: typewritten letter.

1  Maria Wiesengrund’s correspondence has not survived.

* [Marginal note:] she is very pretty and sympathetic, but terribly stupid

* [Addition in Adorno’s hand:] and is well off up there.