205 LOS ANGELES, 15.1.1948
15 January 1948
Marinumba my animal,
we were so happy to hear from you – why were you silent for so long? Imagine if we had done the same!!
Giraffe has already given you most of our news.1 All I have to add is that I have just finished, definitively and in agreement with my American colleagues, the first of my chapters for the big Berkeley book; that the faculty meetings in La Habra increasingly resemble creditors’ assemblies; that we heard quite a fine recording of Mahler’s 5th Symphony under Bruno Walter. Toni Maaskoff, an excellent violinist, is very ill, a malignant glandular business; supposedly, however, he is reacting well to a new kind of treatment. You are quite right, I did already know Lisa Minghetti in Frankfurt, we are meanwhile very good friends, she has made great progress musically and is otherwise also delightful. Last night we worked on a Beethoven trio together.
Robert had called Gretel the evening before the wedding (I was at the Chevalier with Lily Latté); we have not heard from him since then. Charlotte cancelled her visit because she ‘did not want to leave Robert alone’ – while he married Anita. This was her version, at least – the true reason is that her trip to LA would not have been a triumph. I am glad she did not come. We are not writing at all any more.
Hippo Cow, my animal, was the formulation about the decline of the friendship in your letter to Else not a little too pointed – i.e. are we not thus making it very difficult for her to write to me, for example? But it is not important – if we ever see her again, we shall get around to it, and as things are now we are certainly out of contact.
Thomas Mann responded to the 3rd part of my book of aphorisms in a manner so positive that I truly cannot reproduce it. You would have enjoyed yourself. – Maidon is better again; the Pollocks are moving into their new house in a few weeks.
Hopefully Liefmann is not seriously ill; I would find it quite terrible for you.
Write soon, my animal, and look after yourself. Here we are having the most unnatural midsummer weather.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Gretel Adorno’s letter has not survived.
206 LOS ANGELES, 27.1.1948
27 January 1948
Marinumba my animal,
we were so happy to receive your letter, finally, after we had already started to worry. Admittedly Max, who has been back for a week, had given us a very satisfied account of his visit with you – he found it particularly pleasant and said that he had had a much more stimulating conversation with you than with most ‘young people’. He found you generally cheerful and in good condition.
The name of Luli’s husband is, as we have already written a number of times, Paul Kollsmann – a self-made man1 who amassed a great fortune through an aeronautical invention in the war, and is now working on further inventions, though without much success, it seems – evidently more of a one-off ‘bullseye’ – an aeronautical Cavalleria,2 so to speak. He is a fairly simple man who attempts somewhat awkwardly, in the manner of a Raimund folk play, to play the grand gentleman, incidentally quite harmless. Luli herself is in a much better state, now much more the way she was in the first years of our friendship.
We also listened to the broadcast of Das Lied von der Erde, and it is a lovely feeling to know that we were all immersed in the same phenomenon for hours. I too was glad once more to hear this work that is so ineffably close to my heart. In our assessment of the performance, however, we differ. The woman certainly has a wonderful voice, but is primitive and carefree in a manner that makes a parody of the whole as far as the expression is concerned. The tenor too is essentially quite clueless (he was best in Der Trunkene im Frühling). But worst of all was Herr Walter, that old goose-dripping gourmet, the Korngold3 of conducting, who would be better off doing Lehar than performing Mahler. None, absolutely none of the musical characters were captured – he really has only two basic types at his disposal,4 the exaggerated cantilena and a manner of sour, brash brio. And imprecise to boot, with the musical context completely incomprehensible in some passages. A symptom of the general decline in musical presentation. Otherwise nothing new here, a great deal of work on the final editing of my portion of the Berkeley project. Tomorrow probably at La Habra for the last time.
Heartiest kisses from your daft old child
Teddie
Hearty kisses
Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten closing greetings.
1 self-made man: EO.
2 An allusion to the opera Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945), which remained his only success.
3 The composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), son of the music critic of the Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse, had composed almost exclusively for the cinema since 1938.
4 See Adorno’s posthumous work Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction (trans. Wieland Hoban [Cambridge: Polity, 2006], p. 147), where Adorno writes about a recording of Das Lied von der Erde under Bruno Walter featuring the tenor Julius Patzak and the contralto Kathleen Ferrier. On Walter, see also pp. 78 and 83f.
207 LOS ANGELES, 10.2.1948
10 February 1948
Mumma my little Hippo Sow,
so, we are d’accord about Herr Schlesinger1 von der Vogelweide.2 Incidentally, he – quite good friends with Thomas Mann from Munich days – is angry about the cultural bolshevism in some of the Faust novel’s musical elements, and thus about me, so everything is as it should be. – Meanwhile I heard the famous Herr Münch with Berlioz’ Phantastique, but the purely musical quality of that piece is simply so poor that one cannot have any fun, not even with Herr Münch, if one cannot see his dinner jacket, which is admittedly reported to be extraordinary.
Little news; good progress with the Berkeley book, which it seems will be printed by one of the most respected publishers.3 Meanwhile I am making certain additions to my ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’ of 1941, which will make a little book of it.
How I would like to see Helenchen’s letter (we have not had any news from Auerbach for ages) – I imagine wee Frau Pastern getting into a dispute with the wife of the local bank manager and the two of them hurling abuse at each other, a true petty bourgeois idyll with murder in the air. Could I see the document? Gretel recalled our situation when he had to return Baba, which I rejected as insulting Baba.
On Saturday there was a housewarming party4 at Eva Herrman’s place with the Manns, the Feuchtwangers etc., in her delightfully tasteful little new house. Sunday evening Lix’s 50th birthday, celebrated with a good goose and champagne in a very small group, only the Horkheimers, the Pollocks plus mother-in-law and ourselves, with a strong feeling of kinship. Tonight after supper Max and Maidon will be here together with Lang and Lily for the first time. On Friday dinner with Thomas Mann. That is more or less everything, but you can see that your horses are not exactly living in the deepest solitude, although they, and Max too, would often prefer it. Keep looking after yourself my Wondrous Hippo Cow with heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Hugs and kisses from the stupid Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting by Gretel Adorno.
1 Bruno Walter’s real name, Bruno Walter Schlesinger, which he gave up in 1896 in favour of his stage name.
2 Translator’s note: this is a reference to the poet and Minnesinger Walter von der Vogelweide (c.1170–c.1230), chosen for his nominal resemblance to Bruno Walter. It is conceivable that Adorno may also have intended a mock-pastoral tone through the meaning of Vogelweide (‘bird pasture’).
3 Harpers & Brothers.
4 housewarming party: EO.
208 LOS ANGELES, 24.2.1948
L.A., 24 February 1948
Mumma my Hippo Cow Animal,
thank you most kindly for your letter. A shame you were unable to hear Eduard’s concert. He is quite successful in his profession, but has to pay a doctor (whom I consider highly problematic) 1000 dollars every month for the unfortunate Mausi’s1 treatment – and how can the poor man afford that.
A pleasant letter from Franz that was also quite optimistic as regards our German claims. He said that Louis’che had not heard from you in an age. – The letter from Helenchen is sadly not as nice as I had hoped; I herewith return it.
An extremely high-spirited letter from Anita from her ‘young marriage’; evidently it is a load off both their shoulders. No word from Charlotte. Incidentally, Max is in S.F. for a few days.
Last week we brought quite a few of our records such as Kainz, Moissi, Pallenberg, Yvette2 etc. to Lang, who was a little down, and they proved a quite incredible success. The famous (but unsympathetic) dancer Mattray3 recorded some of them with his tape recorder4 afterwards, which had been arranged with the help of the young Schildkraut, who was also at Lang’s.
I expect I have already told you that I am writing a whole new part on Stravinsky for ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’. It is now, along with some other additions, to become a book.
I gave one of my chapters for the big Berkeley book to a professor at UCLA5 (the major state university here, the sister of Berkeley) for the first time, and he was most impressed.
Last night at a boring concert with Norah, Walter Lehmann and his wife6 (Giraffe skived). Afterwards with the truly enchanting Lisa Minghetti and the party.7 Her husband’s condition has improved just a touch.
That’s about all,8 my animal. Hopefully you are well. How are those Hippo Cow eyes? Your writing seemed less clear again – do tell me how things stand. With heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Eduard Steuermann’s daughter.
2 The gramophone records of the actors Josef Kainz (1858–1910), Alexander Moissi (1879–1935), Max Pallenberg (1877–1934) and the chansonnière Yvette Guilbert (1865–1944) have not been identified.
3 The Budapest-born Ernst Matray (1891–1978) worked for years as an actor and dancer of grotesques at the Deutsches Theater under Max Reinhardt; his successful film career began with his debut in Reinhardt’s silent film Das Mirakel (1913). In 1927 he married the actress Maria Solveg, with whom he emigrated to the USA via England in 1933. In Hollywood, Matray was active as a choreographer and director of well-known film productions until 1955.
4 tape recorder: EO.
5 Unidentified.
6 Uncertain; possibly the former Frankfurt surgeon Walter Lehmann (1888–1960) and his wife Wera von Kuszowski, who had lived in emigration in California since 1939.
7 party: EO.
8 That’s about all: EO.
209 LOS ANGELES, 4.3.1948
4 March 1948
Marinumba, my best Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your letter. It is difficult to gain a precise impression of the illness of Eduard’s little daughter; the diagnosis is schizophrenia, but at least it seems a slightly less severe case than that of Gretel Herzberger,1 and her private medical treatment seems to have led to a certain improvement, but it is of course horrible. I voiced a suspicion of mental illness to Eduard years ago; he dismissed the idea back then; if he had subjected the child to analysis sufficiently early, as I wanted, one might perhaps have been able to save her.
The first big book written together with Max is coming out now; the next is in its infancy, delayed through the Jewish projects, regarding which Max will probably have to go to N.Y. again soon – but in the meantime I have finished, as well as the Berkeley things, my big book of aphorisms, and ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’ has made great progress. – La Habra is finished.
Else is still ignoring my existence, it seems. Or not? You did not believe it, but it does seem to be the case. I would be grateful to receive all the letters, and will return them promptly. Regarding poor Hermann,2 I tried once to gain the rich Norah’s help in the matter, but entirely in vain – she hardly knew him, and there are no claims upon the family. It would naturally be easy for her to help, but unfortunately she is ‘tight’,3 and also irritable about anything relating to the association bank’s take-over of the investment bank, and rightly so.
You should keep the Cronberg picture – it gives you pleasure, and with our constantly insecure housing situation one should really not send it over here – but a thousand thanks nonetheless.
Naturally we do still have the old gramophone, and it is still serving us well, though we would like to have a more modern one, but this too shall have to wait until we have secure housing. Today, incidentally, I received a few nice lines from Hilda Crevenna4 in New York – Pace mio Dio5 … I think she is in quite a bad way, she has no money, and her lover, a singer and conductor by the name of Wolf,6 on whose account she had left Germany under the Nazis, has left her in the lurch.
On Saturday Luli introduced us to her sister Christa,7 very pleasant and pretty, but not a patch on the real Luli. But we struck up an immediate rapport as if we had known each other for years. We then took a substantial walk through the park, with whole packs of Afghan hounds leaping about around us. Though Ali Baba is like an old spinal patient and hardly gets up from his warm bed by the heater (when he is not lying on Luli’s bed), he still did us the honours – tried to get into our car and followed us with a long gaze from the archway as we left. Touching. On Sunday Gretel went across country with Lang and Lily to an artificial ‘Pioneer Town’8 there are such things here, rather like the artificial hermitage at the Favres’ in Weilnau; I had to stay home to see young Rebner, who discussed his by no means untalented compositions with me. In the evening we went to Norah’s with the writer Willi Speyer,9 with whom we were also at Luli’s on Saturday (he is a childhood friend of her brother, who was murdered by the Nazis). – Did I already tell you that Baroness Brentano turned out to be an impostor? Luli’s accounts alone were a theatre performance.
Poor Giraffe has a terrible but entirely innocent cold, and yet she is accompanying me tonight to the Horkheimers, where there will be a few people.
The rough dictation of my Stravinsky is approaching completion – that is when the work really starts.
Would it not be lovely if we could get the houses back again, and you ended up moving into the Seeheim10 house as an old queen mother and Ancient Hippo Sow?
Poor Thomas Mann has broken his shoulder – at the Horkheimers, incidentally – but it is a ‘smooth’ break, he is almost better already, I saw him at length on Monday.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
A kiss, not infectious at this distance, from the stupid lanky
Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 No further information could be found concerning Gretel Herzberger, who had lived in Berlin during the 1920s.
2 This refers to Hermann Levi.
3 ‘tight’: EO.
4 Hilda Viktoria Plieninger, from a family of merchants and industrialists, had been married to Alfred Bolongaro-Crevenna (1881–1962) from 1913 to 1932; no further information could be found.
5 An aria from Verdi’s La forza del destino.
6 Unknown.
7 Christa von Bodenhausen (1909–86).
8 ‘Pioneer Town’: EO.
9 The writer Wilhelm Speyer (1887–1952), who had collaborated with Walter Benjamin on occasion, lived in Beverly Hills during his American exile; in 1947 he published the novel Das Glück der Andernachs [The Good Fortune of the Andernachs].
10 Adorno’s parents owned a villa on the Bergstraße in Seeheim, where they had intended to spend their retirement. They had been forced to sell the house and the property on 7 July 1938.
210 LOS ANGELES, 15.3.1948
15 March 1948
My dears good Hippo Cow,
Norah Andreae just dropped in to entrust us with her papers once again, for tonight she will be flying to Mexico again for her sixtieth birthday, and spending Easter there with her children. The Marxes will be opening another restaurant there, as the first one is running so superbly. A few days ago we were up with Luli and Baba, Teddie tried out a Steinway for her, and, just imagine, Baba jumped on his daughter Dusky and she is now expecting offspring from him. I am quite amazed that he manages it with his slow movements. – Max is leaving in a week, and this week there is much activity here, meetings about the Jewish things, university matters etc. – Today Archie finished dictating the second part of his ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’, the part on Stravinsky, and in high spirits as a result. Even if there is still much to do, it at least exists now. – Yesterday we had a nice, peaceful Sunday up with Lang and Lily with fresh sausages, sauerkraut and beer, with which we drank your health. It is nicest completely improvised, without any party.1
Many hugs and kisses
from your lanky Giraffe
Has Hermann Levi gone mad or is Herbert2 really a monster, or both? Else is systematically ignoring my existence. I do think you should then mention me again; it is unclear to me, incidentally, what she really expected from me.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 party: EO.
2 Herbert Levi.
211 LOS ANGELES, 24.3.1948
24 March 1948
Marinumba, my Hippo Sow,
a thousand Easter wishes and thanks for your letter. In a few days it will be your 821½2th birthday, a date that I shall honour with the appropriate solemnity. Hopefully you are well and your dear hippo heart is not having too much trouble coping with the rapid change of temperature that is customary in New York at this time of year. Here the rainy season has started again, enough to make one melancholy. Max and Pollock are in New York, but are under incredible pressure, and you must not be angry if you do not hear from him. I have the whole Jewish business on my shoulders here, and I hardly know if I am coming or going, but ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’ is more or less finished. I went to a Stravinsky concert under his excellent direction, exclusively with recent works, incredibly well done, but rather standardized and hollow, also the new symphony, despite presenting itself as more demanding and modern. But next to our good Virgil Thomson he is of course a true Beethoven, although he struck me as a cross between a clown and an executive, and his music also has an element of that. Also a concert of Krenek’s music, rather uneven, very weak new songs, but a delightful clarinet trio. I am glad that Julie is coming here, though she will not have much fun in downtown Los Angeles; Gretel already wrote to her about that. I think you should simply write to Else asking why she is ignoring my existence, tell her that I am very sad about it, that it is evidently due to a completely mistaken assessment of the situation, and that such friction is quite ridiculous. That the whole thing is inexplicable to you and she should spit it out. Forgive my haste, with heartiest kisses from
your old child
Teddie
An especially sweet Easter kiss
your lanky Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
212 LOS ANGELES, 1.4.1948
1.IV.1948
Marinumba, my animal,
a thousand thanks for your letter. We had a pleasant, peaceful Easter with Maidon and listened to the 5th Symphony, Giraffe’s present to me. Lily got through her rather complicated appendix operation well, and is back home.
I am up to my neck in Jewish negotiations, and having a great deal of fun. As well as that I am trying, as far as I possibly can, to advance the final editing of Philosophie der neuen Musik, looking after Lix and seeing all sorts of professors about institute matters. On Easter Saturday I played some sonatas with the dangerously ill violinist Toni Maaskoff, including the last, very difficult one in C minor by Beethoven, and he, whose condition has temporarily improved, played more beautifully and vigorously than ever.
I can well imagine the Violin Concerto by Kreisler1 and its interpretation, and am glad that nowadays such stuff gets on your nerves just as much as those of your cultural bolshevist child.
Ilse Mayer has arrived in New York, even though we all advised against such an undertaking. I assume that she will look you up together with Carlota Pollock, who flew to New York for 2 weeks. Max called me yesterday from N.Y.; he is under incredible pressure, but in good spirits.
The offspring of Ali Baba’s incest all died at once.
On Monday we shall have some theatre here: Luli with the Thomas Manns2 and perhaps Lang for tea. Tomorrow evening we are at Lix’s for dinner with a few film people. We are both well despite all the work.
Heartiest kisses from
your old child
Teddie
The hippo pinched all my news, many kisses
your old Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 Presumably Fritz Kreisler’s C major Violin Concerto ‘In the Style of Vivaldi’, assuming that Adorno is not simply referring to a concert by Kreisler including a violin concerto (the Beethoven?).
2 Thomas Mann’s diary contains the following entry for 5 April: ‘In the afternoon at the Adornos for tea with his pride and joy, the rich baroness, who had little to offer’ (Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 28.5.1946–31.12.1948 [Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1989], p. 245).
213 LOS ANGELES, 15.4.1948
15 April 1948
Mumma, my animal,
the only reason that we have now gone for longer than usual without writing is our unimaginable workload. The whole of the Jewish negotiations, with the heads of all organizations, all carrying a relative responsibility, are entirely down to me here. I have gone through the entire book of aphorisms thoroughly once more before sending it to a publisher1 who has shown interest. ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’ is finished, except for a series of additions that I am continuing to dictate. There will not be a final draft for months yet. But you will receive a copy of the book I wrote with Max as soon as I have one myself. – Also, the longest of my chapters for the anti-Semitism project has come back from Berkeley, edited by Sanford, and I have to go through the whole thing again, a small book in itself, with the utmost precision before the fair copy is made. Lix is being a very good helper.
You can imagine that I can barely get around to writing amid all the work, and at the moment I have next to no private life worthy of report. Maidon returned today from New York, where she had been for four days. Reason: there is a considerable chance that Max will be taking a trip to Europe without coming back here. That will probably be decided within the next week.
The afternoon with Luli and Thomas Mann provided less theatre than we had hoped – she was a little inhibited and reserved, and he spoke mostly with Ali Baba and me. Norah is back from Mexico, very pleasant.
We are very well despite all the commotion, and are thinking of you.
Heartiest kisses from
your old child
Teddie
Our pretty friend Lisa Minghetti (Maaskoff) is in N.Y. for a few days, and will call on you if she can, my Hippo Cow.
Many hugs from Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten postscript and hand-written greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 This was Fritz H. Landshoff at the Querido Verlag, who had published the Dialectic of Enlightenment the previous year. Adorno had offered Landshoff Minima Moralia in his letter of 25 March 1948. No direct response to the letter from the publisher has survived among Adorno’s belongings. On 9 July, however, Landshoff wrote that he had only recently started reading the book.
214 LOS ANGELES, 23.4.1948
Los Angeles, 23 April 1948
Mumma my dearest Wondrous Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter, and for not getting in a huff about my not writing. Max suddenly decided to go to Europe with a mission and money from the Rockefeller Foundation, and will be reading in Frankfurt, among other things – very interesting, but horribly exhausting. Yesterday evening for dinner at Maidon’s with Lix and the Pollocks; Carlota spoke extremely highly of you and said what great presence of mind you had shown; but she also says that Ilse is in very good shape at the moment.
Main event: today our lovely cupboard arrived, delivered in the Pollocks’ lift. Fritz and Lix will install it together next week, in the den;1 it was no mean feat to find a spot for the giant thing in our limited space, but I am very happy to have it. A sign of the Hippo Cow.
Stiedry conducted the Metropolitan here and gave me a call, was here on Tuesday and will probably come again tomorrow, very pleasant and stimulating. My part in the novel by Th. M. is apparently common knowledge in N.Y. Tomorrow evening at the Kreneks with Stiedry, at Norah’s in the afternoon of the following day. All this, together with our incredible amounts of work, is a little too much for Gretel, who is on the edge of a migraine. But the work will now be reducing somewhat. I still have one part of Philosophie der neuen Musik to dictate and a few additions to sort out; my Berkeley chapters are also nearly finished. Lix gave me some very useful help with them. Next week I have to speak in a highly official capacity, together with a professor2 from the university here, at an executive dinner3 held by the local branch of the American Jewish Committee; in general a great deal of Jewish stuff.
I remember Otto Kömff4 quite well; what has he done wrong that he should have such a guilty conscience – I have no idea any more. I shall write to him on my next ‘correspondence day’; at the moment I have not even been able to reply to Franz’s last, lengthy letter, it is only the Giant Sow who is being flooded with letters!!!
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Has Liesl got in touch?
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting.
1 den: EO.
2 Presumably the sociologist Leonard Bloom, who taught in Los Angeles.
3 This took place on 28 April with the purpose of inaugurating a new project towards the ‘Re-education of the Germans’. Translator’s note: EO.
4 Maria Wiesengrund wrote the following response on 29 April: ‘The Kömpf boys had stolen some of your things. Willi Röckl was not there during the afternoon in question. And he would never have stolen even a bun from you. While clearing up your things, we immediately noticed that some toys, little notebooks with good, rare stamps, stones, in particular a very large and beautiful amethyst, unprocessed of course, were missing. So, as no one had been there except the Kömpf boys, we knew what was what. Dädd [Agathe Calvelli-Adorno] went to the people at once and said that the children had taken this and that ‘by mistake’. The children had hidden themselves. The mother said she would have a look and after a few hours brought the toys, a ‘teddy bear’ etc. She did not find the stamps and the amethyst, but in fact a few other stones. The woman was most agitated. The boys did not come any more! So be careful and do not mention it. I remember very well. –’ (See also the following letter.)
215 LOS ANGELES, 6.5.1948
6 May 1948
Dr. T.W. Adorno
316 So. Kenter Ave.
Los Angeles 24, Calif.
Mumma, my animal,
a thousand thanks for your sweet letter. Max has meanwhile arrived in Paris. He was especially sorry that he was not able to look you up, but he truly was under the most unbelievable pressure.
The most important thing I have to report is that ‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’ has been accepted by my old publisher (Siebeck) in Tübingen, and in fact without even seeing the manuscript. I have meanwhile written a theoretical introduction for it, and am now putting the finishing touches on that. I am quite happy about it. But please do not talk to anyone about it; I only want it to become public once I have signed the contract.
Last week we were invited to Lang’s with Miss Massary,1 who now looks exactly like what she has been for the last twenty years: an old Jewess, very uneducated, she evidently climbed up from the petty bourgeoisie, but talented and intelligent. The point of the evening was for us to play her our Massary records, which she does not have. She was very moved by it and is having them copied.
The day before yesterday we had an especially pleasant evening with Luli and Baba. They are thinking of going to Europe for a few weeks.
My speech2 at the Jewish dinner was, as far as all those involved were concerned, a great success, but it is highly doubtful whether it will have any practical consequences.
I now have a lot of work to do on the final editing of the Labor Project for the institute. – I will not rush my response to Kömff. Incidentally, he was not the boy with the amethysts, it was Beuschel.3
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Hugs and kisses from your lanky Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 The operetta star Fritzi Massary (1882–1969) lived in Beverly Hills; she had emigrated to the USA in 1938. She was married to Max Pallenberg and was the mother of Liesl Frank.
2 Nothing has remained of Adorno’s speech – which was presumably unscripted – among his belongings.
3 No information could be gained about this friend from Adorno’s childhood or youth.
216 LOS ANGELES, 22.5.1948
Los Angeles, 22 May 1948
Mumma my Hippo Cow,
there has been an uncommonly long interval between my last letter and this one. But nothing is amiss, nor am I guilty of neglect – my work had simply piled up to such a degree in the last 2 weeks that I literally could not find a minute for myself. My two last Berkeley chapters arrived in the version edited by Sanford, which I had to work through thoroughly once more before they can be copied, and at the same time I also (leaving aside my own editorship for the Labor Study) had to prepare my lectures1 for the budding psychoanalysts here (lots of young doctors) on Freud’s sociological and anthropological writings. The last lecture was yesterday, and was an extraordinarily great success – they want me to collaborate on a larger scale. And my part for Berkeley is now entirely finished, after long, long birthing pains, in good shape. The final chapter of the book will now also be based on a roughly 40-page text I wrote last year. At that time, my colleagues at Berkeley showed great resistance to it; but now, as the water of the deadline is reaching their necks and they are too lazy to do it themselves, they are falling back on it – a small victory.
Aside from these professional matters I can hardly think of anything to report, for, as you will understand, we have hardly seen anyone. From next week onwards things will be much quieter here, peaceful constant work on the Labor Study and the last check through Philosophie der neuen Musik before the fair copy is made and sent to the publisher. This morning we took a breather by the sea. – Max was in Switzerland and is going to Frankfurt tomorrow.
Milton Seligman died – entirely peacefully of a stroke, returning home from a bridge session with Willi Dreyfuss.2 I am very sorry, for I truly liked him and we had become particularly close in the last, rather complicated years. He was 81 years old, but seemed much younger. – It appears that Norah will be going to Europe to see her mother. Are you well? Is it not yet too hot for your good Hippo Cow head? I asked Norah through an acquaintance at the Frankfurt zoo to inquire about Lieschen3 the hippo cow!
Heartiest kisses my animal from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Among Adorno’s belongings there are two English texts marked ‘1st lecture, 5/22/48’ and ‘2nd lecture’ (undated); they both bear the title ‘Psychoanalysis and Sociology’. It is possible that both texts were only typed out by Gretel Adorno from the shorthand after the final lecture on 21 May.
2 The Frankfurt banker Willy Dreyfus (1885–1977) had been vice-president of the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden [Relief Organization of German Jews]. He emigrated to Switzerland.
3 A picture postcard from the Tiergarten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, depicting the hippo cow Lieschen (Hippopotamus amphibius), had last been sent to Adorno by Maria Wiesengrund in 1936.
217 LOS ANGELES, 10.6.1948
10 June 1948
Marinumba, my animal,
a thousand thanks for your letter. The last week was rather rough, as I wanted to force the definitive completion of Philosophie der neuen Musik at all costs. The manuscript was finished today, on Gretel’s birthday, and Fräulein v. Mendelssohn will be collecting it later to produce the fair copy. It is a great load off my shoulders. I am also approaching the end of my part of the editing for the Labor Project, and my last Berkeley chapter has gone out as well. So I can finally breathe again; though admittedly I still have to give a very important lecture1 for the heads of the Jewish organization here. But then I can divide it up as I please, and above all deal with Benjamin’s remaining works, which is for me an intellectual and moral duty of the highest order. I would like to afford my own production a small hiatus.
It should amuse you to know that a German magazine2 asked me to write an essay about the music in Thomas Mann’s Faust novel. Naturally I declined.
We had a very sweet telegram from Max today; he hardly has the time to write, and the results of his journey cannot yet be fully judged. –
We shall be celebrating Giraffe’s birthday tonight at Lang and Lily’s with good fodder; Maidon is in Lake Arrowhead and had constant nosebleeds, and Fritz and Carlota had to drive up there to check up on her. We have not heard from Else either, but from Charlotte, who is hunting in New York.
Max is giving lectures at the universities in Frankfurt and a few other cities.
According to a charming letter Lix received from old Frau Drevermann,3 there does seem to be more left of the institute building than the first photograph of the ruins suggested.
On account of a remark in a letter from Franz that Julie mentioned to me, I am enclosing a statement that I would ask you to date, sign in the presence of a notary public4 and send to Franz please. Very important.
Our health is good, though understandably we are also both somewhat tired.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
My dears Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for the greatly excessive cheque, which I shall use to buy myself some nice dark stockings. I am happy that your eyes and blood pressure are in good shape; we shall soon hear at length about you from Julie. When is she planning to turn up here?
I enclose a letter from Melly that may interest you; please have Julie read it to you. I have not heard any more from Helenchen, although packages, even an insured one, are en route with winter overcoats and a great deal of writing paper etc. One rather solid one was lost last year, unfortunately, with shoes and a handbag and the like. – Norah is genuinely going to Switzerland again at the end of the month, as her mother could ultimately not bring herself to come here. She has let out her house. Luli is also in Europe.
Quite especially hearty kisses from
your old stupid
Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter.
1 No further information.
2 Unknown.
3 Ria Drevermann was a friend of Max Horkheimer; her son, the architect Wolf Drevermann, planned the rebuilding of the institute in Frankfurt.
4 notary public: EO.
218 LOS ANGELES, 21.6.1948
21 June 1948
Mumma, my animal,
thank you most kindly for your letter of the 15th.
Today I enclose something that might entertain you: the letter Thomas Mann wrote me back in 19451 regarding the Faust novel. Naturally utmost discretion: do not show the letter to anyone under any circumstances, and send it back once you have read it. I should add that the document is from a time when my collaboration was still in its earliest stages: my main contribution, the detailed descriptions of Leverkühn’s works, which fill entire chapters, only came about in a later phase. Thomas Mann told me a few days ago that he is interrupting his present work, a novella, to write an autobiographical essay2 in which he plans to reveal the whole business to the public, and I naturally have no intention of preventing that in any way, not least because the significance of such an essay for me can hardly be overestimated. We are having the Manns over on Wednesday evening. Otherwise I would also add that the passage on the op. 111 sonata and the enthusiasm of Herr Walter is written with a smile, as that very passage is a ‘montage’, i.e. taken directly from an essay of mine3 that appeared many years ago in the Prague journal ‘Auftakt’.
Quite a number of interesting people have crossed my path, for example a truly quite extraordinary pianist by the name of Pesha Kagan,4 a student of Schnabel and both musically and pianistically a phenomenon the like of which I have heard only very rarely – far above Josie.5 And yesterday, at the Pollocks, a son of Carl Friedberg6 who told me all there is to know about Fred and Céline Goldbeck. Fred has now finally married Yvonne Lefébure,7 who is now also in her late forties. They waited for so long because of an inheritance they were expecting from Céline’s family, but which naturally never materialized. Céline spent the war in New York, but did not get in touch with anyone due to a general state of anger. The Friedbergs had arranged the immigration to America for Fred and provided him with a very good position, but, with the indolence that is particular to him, he chose instead to stay over there and fled to Spain during the German occupation, where he began a sort of urbane career through Sir Samuel Hoare,8 as something between a private tutor and a dandy.
Anita and Robert seem, judging by a letter he wrote, to be very happy, but they have not been here for over a year, nor I in San Francisco. Yes, I had a letter from Charlotte, and gave a very brief response, c’est tout. You need not fear that she will visit you, but if she did, it would only be a friendly gesture, and the old Hippo Cow Queen Mother would no doubt have enough savoir vivre to receive her courteously.
I am now in the thick of working through Benjamin’s remaining writings, which I have at my disposal – an extremely gripping task. Max will, I hope, be back here by August.
Melly is not planning to emigrate, as far as we know. Lotte and E
are very well. Sperber9 is a pleasant and friendly wire-haired fox terrier.
Heartiest kisses
Many kisses Giraffe
from your old Hippo King
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 Thomas Mann’s letter of 30 December 1945; see Theodor W. Adorno and Thomas Mann, Correspondence 1943–55 (Cambridge: Polity, 2006), pp. 11–14.
2 Thomas Mann interrupted his work on Der Erwählte [published in English as The Holy Sinner] to write Die Entstehung des Doktor Faustus. Roman eines Romans [published in English as The Genesis of a Novel].
3 See letter no. 97, note 2.
4 No further information could be found regarding this pianist, who played at the Adornos on 23 June 1948 in the presence of Katia and Thomas Mann. Pescha Kagan (as she signed her letters) still wrote to Adorno a number of times during the 1950s, and Adorno replied at least once.
5 Concerning Josefa Rosanska, see letter no. 4, note 14.
6 The pianist Carl Friedberg (1872–1955), born in Bingen am Rhein, had studied with Clara Schumann at the Hoch’sches Konservatorium; he taught there himself from 1893 to 1904. He also taught at the Juilliard School of Music in New York from 1924 onwards. The name of his son is unknown.
7 See letter no. 38, note 7; no further information could be gained regarding Céline Goldbeck.
8 The British Conservative politician Viscount Samuel Hoare (1880–1959) was special envoy in Madrid from 1940 to 1944, and succeeded in counteracting German attempts to persuade Spain to enter the war.
9 Maidon Horkheimer’s new dog.
219 LOS ANGELES, 14.7.1948
14 July 1948
Mumma, my Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your letter of the 10th with the one from Else, which latter I enclose. I have, in spite of everything, made a further attempt to reach some understanding with her, and also enclose that letter. If she behaves like a human being, then no one shall be gladder than myself. If not, then my response will be the same as it has been in other cases that meant more to me: just too bad.1
We were deeply happy to receive the plain red tie (I have an old preference for plain colours, perhaps due to lack of visual imagination) and the handkerchiefs, and send you our heartiest thanks.
It was wonderful to see Julie again, harmonious and peaceful for all concerned. We spent a great deal of time together. On Sunday we collected her as soon as she arrived at her hotel in Hollywood and dragged her to our cave. On Monday Gretel picked her up from Hollywood again, and she spent the evening with us once more, and today we still went to her for lunch before her departure. She had a superbly relaxing time, looks marvellous and is in good spirits. We admire her for her enterprising spirit. I think we would barely have the élan vital to spend our holidays on such a strenuous and arduous trip. She will give you all the details about our time together, including the big cupboard.
Otherwise nothing new here, I am correcting the fair copy of
‘Philosophie der neuen Musik’. We are both very well, only a little tired. We went to the beach for the first time this season.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Please send me back my letter to Else!2
Fond regards your old Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten postscript and handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 just too bad: EO.
2 On 12 July Adorno wrote Else Herzberger the following letter:
My dears Else, you old sourpuss,
so you finally came out with it and told my mother that you cannot write to me. Well, I can; and I shall; and I ask you if we should really, after a friendship that has shaped our whole lives and left its indelible traces, however you might behave – if we should really be cross with each other like children, and whether it would not be a thousand times better and more humane, for every possible reason, for Agathe’s sake, but equally for our own, to resume contact at once. As if we could afford to lose each other in this ravaged world.
I really have no idea how I have disappointed you. If it is about material matters (and I can hardly imagine anything else), then you probably had fundamentally mistaken expectations. I would like to explain the situation, but before you hold a grudge against me, you must definitely tell me what is the matter and give me a chance to speak. Firstly, because one always – except under fascism – gives the accused a chance to be heard; but secondly because I am convinced that what stands between us will prove to be as light as a feather if we get hold of it and get it out of the way.
I shall tell you about us as soon as I receive word from you. I expect you know that a big book I wrote together with Max was recently published by Querido. But above all, write to me about yourself, and about the very pressing matter of repatriation.
Do I still have to tell you how atrocious I find the state of things between us and how it saddens me? No: we are not so far apart that you could fail to know that.
Fond regards from your old
(typescript copy in the Theodor W. Adorno Archiv).
Else Herzberger did not reply to Adorno.
220 LOS ANGELES, 24.7.1948
24 July 1948
Mumma, my animal,
one of those sayings that have lost their validity is that lightning never strikes twice in the same place. After sending us the eviction notice,1 as you know, in order to move into our apartment himself, our landlord sent us a second eviction notice a fortnight later. The house is sold; the new owner intends to move into our apartment, and the present owner will stay in his old one for now. We are attempting to defend ourselves against this latest attack, but there is little hope. I am convinced that we shall have to leave this time, and the matter of finding even a remotely suitable apartment is, for the most basic financial reasons, a problem of the highest order.
In connection with this concern, however, your own housing question also arises. Julie told us that things are becoming increasingly embarrassing, uncomfortable and expensive for you, not to mention that she thinks the whole business will not continue much longer in any case due to the landlady’s plans. Julie herself would like to find an apartment of her own, so that she can finally have a home of her own – an intention that I can well understand in the light of the difficult work she has to carry out, and after all the touching solidarity she has shown. The three of us together have had the idea of finding something else for you, and if possible sharing with others, so that you are not isolated, and where the practical matters that are starting to become a burden for you can be taken off your hands. A solution such as this would also give us all a greater feeling of material security, as then things would become more comfortable for you than they are at present, and at the same time our finances – which are limited, after all – would last considerably longer. The most logical and natural option of simply coming to live with us can be ruled out due to the housing crisis and the uncertainty of our whole plans. I know how hard it is for you to leave the apartment, after sharing it with my father to the end, but I do advocate it on the basis of a sense of reason that he would have been the first to promote, and above all for your sake and that of your own inner peace. Julie wants to take some time to look for something suitable, and it goes without saying that nothing will be undertaken before she has found the right place, one that also appeals to you. No decision in this matter will be made without you, but I do mean together with you, and I would first of all like to know your initial reaction to my suggestion.
I just received your letter of the 20th, a thousand thanks. I am happy with all my heart that you are well in spite of the atrocious heat. We have little to report, except for terrible amounts of work. Max is embarking today, but will probably come here directly without any stopovers. I shall write to you concerning Herr Grau2 within the next few days.
Heartiest kisses, my little sow,
from your old child
Teddie
Hugs and kisses from your lanky
Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 eviction notice: EO.
2 Unknown.
221 LOS ANGELES, 30.7.1948
30 July 1948
Mumma, my mother-animal,
a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter. I am glad that you mastered the Julie-less time so well and with such bearing, and glad too that we are d’accord regarding the problem of your ‘lodgings’. I am quite sure that Julie will find the best solution, and in good time, before the situation in the guesthouse and with Miss Young gets truly out of hand. Please keep us informed. As for ourselves, and the uncertainty of the plans you asked about, it is quite possible that I shall have to go to Europe to give some guest lectures. It also looks very much as if the institute in Frankfurt is being rebuilt. A committee has already been formed for this purpose. If it does work out, then we would all have to see to it temporarily. Max, who did not even spend two days in New York, will be here again on Tuesday, and then all these possibilities will be discussed. There is nothing alarming about it, simply that no decision can be made in this tiresome housing business until our common intentions are entirely clear. The housing situation as such is unchanged and a great strain on our nerves.
Else has not replied to my letter, but Charlotte, on the other hand, wrote to me once more, and a pleasant letter at that. Are you sure you do not want me to send her to you sometime after all? I would be so very curious to hear what you think of her. She wrote, incidentally, that after San Francisco she ‘shook the dust off her feathers’ – as if she had suspected that we call her the Christmas goose. My impression is that she is quite lonely, even if she would naturally never admit it.
Ilse is staying with the Pollocks for a few weeks. We saw her at length the day before yesterday, and both had a very good impression. The business with the mental illness is all based on a truly malicious manoeuvre by the rightfully deceased Clara Plaut.1 Ilse had by no means made her famous costly acquisitions out of recklessness, but – highly rationally – to get larger material amounts out of Germany; old Aunt Louise would only have had to hand over the equivalent sums to the Nazis, and the ghastly Clara was so afraid of losing any money as a result that she had Ilse locked up in an asylum for five months under observation, without her idiotic and egotistical mother, who was living in Berlin at the time, doing anything to prevent it. Please also inform Julie about the matter. Until now we all knew only the distorted version from Clara. A miracle that Ilse did not genuinely go mad in the course of the affair, which also coincided with the November pogroms. But she makes a much more balanced impression now than she did upon her New York visit ten years ago.
Yesterday, at Thomas Mann’s, spoke at length about ‘Felix Krull’, which – to my pleasure – he plans to finish. This afternoon a long walk by the sea, tomorrow probably to the beach with Ilse; as we are not taking any proper holidays, we at least plan to relax a little that way.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Fond regards from your lanky
Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 No further information could be found concerning the private music tutor Clara Plaut (née Mayer, 1886–?) or the circumstances mentioned in the letter.
222 LOS ANGELES, 12.8.1948
12 August 1948
Mumma, my animal, a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter. Here there is still nothing decisively new regarding either the housing question or the greater plans lying ahead of us. Europe did Max a great deal of good, both physically and mentally – he looked 10 years younger when he returned, but is now struggling once more with the Californian climate, which, the longer I stay here, I increasingly consider much worse than its reputation. We are spending quite a lot of time by the sea, where the heat of summer has now finally arrived, a modest substitute for a holiday trip. Tonight we are having Ilse over for supper.
Eduard is here; we are seeing him a great deal, and he is leading a truly heroic life by not only paying the incredibly high costs of his insane daughter’s treatment, but even living with her. After two years’ interruption we are closer and more intimate with him than ever.
We had a very sweet card from Clem1 with the requested addresses, without a word or a greeting from Else. Her behaviour disappoints me; there will be no further efforts in the matter from my side.
Charlotte is still called Charlotte Alexander, and I shall write to her in the next few days to give you a call – receive her cordially.
Otherwise we have nothing to report, we are both in very good shape.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Many kisses
Your Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 Presumably short for Clementine; she was a relative or friend of Else Herzberger.
223 LOS ANGELES, 1.9.1948
1 September 1948
Mumma, my animal,
a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter. We were glad to learn from it, and one from dear Julie, that the question of your housing has been solved in a satisfactory manner, and that, above all, the new landlords are pleasant and familiar. You really are a heroic Hippo Cow Queen, departing from your routine and resettling. But life in 8081 strikes me as becoming so problematic in the long run that the move is also worthwhile for the sake of your own well-being.
Hopefully the abominable heat will soon be over. Here too it is meanwhile making itself greatly felt, and both our nerves are rather frayed due to the housing matter. But, thanks to the sea, Giraffe is feeling better again.
If you really want to make me very happy on my birthday, then send me the Storm that you have, unless you like reading it yourself. (That reminds me: as a child I always confused the writings of Storm with Storm’s railway timetable, but associated both of them with my father.) And then tell me what you would like to have for your 83rd birthday. Do you know that you have now surpassed Goethe, who was renowned for his size and age, my Wondrous Animal?
Max has travelled north for a few days. Today and tomorrow we are spending much time with Eduard again, we went to a party with him on Saturday and played Mahler’s 6th Symphony, which I enjoyed more than ever. Aside from that I quite simply cannot think of any news.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 The house number in West End Avenue.
224 LOS ANGELES, 14.9.1948
14 September 1948
Mumma, my animal,
a thousand thanks for the letter, the cheque and your very sweet birthday wishes, of which we are in quite particular need this year. From this day forward we are living here as outlaws,1 so to speak, i.e. despite the eviction, which would have taken effect yesterday, and are now waiting to be taken to court – a delightful state of affairs. We spent my birthday alone with Lily and Lang; Max is only coming within the next few days, and now Lix’s divorce case is also starting, which the press is sure to meddle in. In short, it is a peaceful life …
You have still not written what you would like for your own birthday, so please be so good and tell us, so that we can get you something in time. Incidentally, my animal, it is your 83rd birthday, not your 84th – do not make yourself older than you are.
I enclose a letter from Franz, and would also ask you to show it to Julie. I have replied to him, saying that he should focus on the concrete facts for now, the ownership of the property and the house, and also attempt to calculate the value of the total assets, as represented by the business, on the basis of my father’s and Julie’s statements in combination with whatever he finds out in Frankfurt.
A rather nice chamber music evening at Thomas Mann’s house,2 including quite an interesting piano trio by Weber and an indescribably beautiful quartet for flute and string trio by Mozart. Excellent flautist. Menuhin’s youngest sister, who is really no genius, was pussyfooting about at the piano. My big manuscript arrived safely in Tübingen, and the preliminary censorship of the French military authority has been cancelled; I hope there will be no further difficulties.
It is a great shame for you that Liefmann is going; I would certainly think about whether you want to take his ‘successor’ or a different doctor, one you know personally. Perhaps you could discuss that with the Löwenthals! – Liefmann’s return to F., admittedly, is very interesting as a symptom. Heartiest kisses from your middle-aged (no longer obliged to do military service!) child
Teddie
Many kisses the old Giraffe. What is the new address?
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten ending.
1 outlaws: EO.
2 In Thomas Mann’s diary there is mention of ‘the big musical soirée’ in the entry of 6 September: ‘Works for quintet and quartet, 2 cellos, one flute. Dinner and “cold duck” in between. Dahl, a good pianist. Vandenburg with wife and sister. Satisfaction all round.’ Neither the G minor Trio for piano, flute and violin, op. 63, by Carl Maria von Weber nor the Flute Quartet by Mozart are mentioned. It is known, at least, that the pianist Hephzibah Menuhin (1920–81) was staying in California during July.
225 LOS ANGELES, 28.9.1948
28 September 1948
Mumma, my animal,
a thousand, a thousand congratulations! So, on this 1st of October, your 83rd birthday, you begin to move towards the legendary, as it were mythical, like Archinumba, the mother of Marinumba, who is the source of all those wise sayings such as ‘The most important thing for a hippo is peace and quiet’. May you fare well in your palaeontological dignity, and may you also continue to live in it peacefully and happily in your new apartment. I am glad that the move will take place gently and without great shocks, and that Julie has taken the unpleasant side of things off your hands.
Need I still tell you how much I hope to turn up in New York in the coming year?
Everything is still unclear and in limbo here, but we are getting through it as well as we can with work. Our court case will probably take place in mid-October. At the moment I am elaborating a study on Huxley1 that I conceived long ago, and preparing two older pieces for German publication.
Tonight we are going to a semi-private performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony2 under Thomas Mann’s brother-in-law Pringsheim; the Manns asked us to do so. Thomas Mann has written a large part of his autobiographical representation of the genesis of the Faust novel, and told me yesterday ‘you come off very well in it’.
I shall be with you in spirit on Friday and join you in your celebration with all my heart.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 See ‘Aldous Huxley and Utopia’, and presumably also the essays ‘Spengler after the Decline’ and ‘Veblen’s Attack on Culture’, in Prisms, trans. Samuel Weber and Shierry Weber [Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981], pp. 95–118, 51–72 and 73–94 respectively.
2 Thomas Mann made a note of this performance, conducted by Katia Mann’s twin brother Klaus Pringsheim (1883–1972) – a conducting student of Mahler – on 27 September.
226 LOS ANGELES, 6.10.1948
6 October 1948
Mumma, my animal,
a thousand thanks for your very sweet and eagerly awaited letter, for the book package and above all also for the folder with my manuscripts, which is most welcome, as it contains some material I do not have here. I am very happy that your move went so smoothly and unproblematically, and that you had an enjoyable birthday celebration. I hope you will continue to feel so comfortable in your new Hippo Cow stable, and not be too lonely. Norah Andreae will probably call on you within the next few days, incidentally, as she is arriving in New York from Europe today. And please be so good as to give us your new telephone number – not only for us, but also so that we can pass it on to our friends in New York. To be honest, it is very reassuring to me that you are no longer living at 808. I ultimately found that beehive-like house and its inhabitants, to say nothing of the lift boys,1 rather unsettling, and Frau Young did not exactly inspire confidence either. Do tell us more about the conditions there.
We have no news; we are working consistently and greatly enjoying it. The house business has still not been decided. Hopefully you will continue to feel just as much at ease in your new home as you did during the first few days. Give dear Julie a thousand thanks from us for everything she has done in this matter, above all the masterful organization of the move. Has she already found something suitable?
Heartiest kisses from both of us
Your old
Hippo King
Archibald
Original: typewritten letter.
1 lift boys: EO.
227 LOS ANGELES, 1.11.1948
1 November 1948
Mumma, my animal,
a thousand thanks for your letter. You can naturally keep Ilse’s pictures. There is quite a commotion here, as the Pollocks are flying to New York today and then on to Argentina, and we all have a hundred things to discuss. I also finished dictating an English text1 today that represents the first practical step in drawing on the results of the anti-Semitism study. There was a very pleasant large farewell party at the Pollocks yesterday. Lix’s divorce went much better than we had all expected, and he is in high spirits as a result.
Charlotte will get in touch soon enough; she may be waiting for my reply to her last letter, in which she told me she had arranged something with you. Carlota Pollock will also be getting in touch, although she is in great haste.
Reading the German will Julie sent me a few days ago, I saw for the first time that my father also included her as heir to 3/10 of the German assets, not, as you once told me, 1/16. (Naturally you should not mention the complex to Julie.)
Aside from that, I cannot think of any news to report. We are completely involved in work, and are very well. We were glad to receive so favourable a report about you from Norah.
Tell Julie that I hope her sciatica improves soon.
Heartiest kisses
from your old child
Teddie
Many kisses Giraffe
Original: typewritten letter with handwritten greeting from Gretel Adorno.
1 Probably ‘Democratic Leadership and Mass Manipulation’, published in 1950 in Studies in Leadership: Leadership and Democratic Action, ed. Alvin W. Gouldner, New York, 1950; see GS 20.1, pp. 267–86.
228 LOS ANGELES, 12.11.1948
Los Angeles, 12 November 1948
Mumma my animal,
a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter. I have meanwhile completed an essay ‘Huxley und die Utopie’ for a German essay collection entitled ‘Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft’, which, if all goes well, is to be published over there; and an English text for a collection; a second, psychoanalytical one1 has to be finished by the end of the year. As you see, I am not being idle. Unfortunately, Giraffe has had a very heavy migraine attack during the last few days, the first time in 8 weeks, and is recovering only slowly. But on Saturday we went on a lovely, very long drive (almost 400 miles in all) with Lily Latté and an acquaintance, to the desert around Palm Springs, where we released a tortoise that had not been very comfortable up at Lang’s place. The view from the mountains across the landscape of sand and rocks shimmering in all colours is indescribable, and I know you would also have enjoyed it.
Thomas Mann has finished that autobiographical essay on the Faust novel, and I am naturally very curious to see it. I enclose an American review;2 it should interest you to read what it says about the music. Meanwhile the first German reviews of ‘Dialektik der Aufklärung’ (the book I wrote with Max) are starting to appear, including an especially nice one by my former student Raudszus.3
The result of the election4 is very pleasing, and suggests a chance of 4 reasonably peaceful years. Did you vote, and for whom? We chose Truman at the last minute, as the votes for Wallace would only have benefited Mr Dewey with the moustache.
Meanwhile Thomas Mann’s daughter Monika5 has asked me to give her literary advice. Coming on Saturday.
Norah found your new apartment quite delightful, a great improvement on the last. That makes us glad and grateful. I hope you feel very much at ease there, my animal.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Presumably ‘Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda’. The essay was published only in 1951, in Psychoanalysis and the Social Sciences, vol. 3, ed. G. Róheim (see GS 8, pp. 408–33).
2 See Charles J. Rolo, ‘Mann and his Mephistopheles’, Atlantic Monthly, vol. 182, no. 5, November 1948, pp. 92–4. Or perhaps also: Alfred Kazin, ‘Doom of Dr. Faustus, demon of the absolute: Thomas Mann offers searching fictional study of deep-rooted conflict in German spirit and culture’, New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, 31 October 1948.
3 On 23 July there had been an anonymous review in Aufbau. Bruno Raudszus’s review ‘Das Gesetz der Serie. Beiträge zur Kritik der Zeit’ [The Law of the Series: Contributions to a Critique of our Times] appeared on 9 October 1948 in the Frankfurter Rundschau.
4 The presidential election had been won by the Democrat Harry S. Truman (1884–1972); his Republican opponent was the governor of New York, Thomas Edmund Dewey (1902–71). Henry A. Wallace (1888–1965), originally a Republican, who had been vice-president during Roosevelt’s third term of office, was the candidate of the newly founded Progressive Party, which had a pro-Soviet programme.
5 Monika Mann (1910–92).
229 LOS ANGELES, 2.12.1948
2 December 1948
My dears Hippo Cow,
thank you kindly for your sweet letter. Today I have good news: Teddie’s lecture at the university yesterday (on Heine) was a great success. The students applauded for minutes, and the professors from the English department made very positive comments. It would be nice if something more were to come of it, but sadly that is uncertain, to say the least, even though we could certainly do with the extra money. – If you continue to make such good progress with your English, I daresay you will soon write us English letters; I am sure your eagerness would have been a tremendous source of joy to Oscar. – Next week Archie will be speaking about music sociology1 for a seminar at the other Los Angeles university. On Sunday we were at Miss Massary’s place for tea, and collected our records once more. Although she is an old lady now, she still has great charm and grace; I would like to look like that myself when I am 70.
Many hugs and kisses from your lanky
Giraffe
Mumma my animal, so, tout allait bien – incidentally, I spoke entirely freely, without a script, which made the lecture much more lively. One of the students recorded it all gramophonically with the new method. The lecture is to appear in a journal.
Yesterday was generally a good day: I finally received the definitive contract from Harpers for the big Berkeley book. There is only one more little thing to sort out, then I will send the signed document to New York. According to the terms of the contract, the publisher is obliged to print the book no later than 1 July. I think it will have a considerable effect. I am listed as co-author together with the 3 Berkeley colleagues, but for alphabetical reasons my name is the first.
I received a 16-page letter from Charlotte, who is in a wretched state. She sends you her heartfelt apologies for not visiting you yet, but she is in such a bad way that she did not want you to get the wrong impression of her.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Adorno seems to have spoken freely once again; no manuscript has survived among his belongings.
230 LOS ANGELES, 8.12.1948
8 December 1948
My dearest Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your very sweet letter. Of our friends and acquaintances, Max,1 Mendelssohn, Felix Weil and his new flame, Pollock’s secretary, Frau Krenek and a friend of hers, and Lily Latté were at Archie’s Heine lecture; Max was unable to come that day. Yesterday at the University of Southern California things also went very well; it was only a very intimate seminar. First one girl gave an utterly lousy presentation on an essay by Teddie, then he spoke, and there was quite an active discussion. It was initiated by Ingolf Dahl,2 a conductor who teaches there; he was born in Sweden and grew up in Switzerland. We received a letter from Luli, saying that she plans to arrive here around Christmas. Lisa Minghetti was ill, and will probably not be able to visit you, as she has only a few more days in New York. I enclose a letter from Franz. If we could only see some of our German assets at last, so that things could at least be easier for you. Max has decided not to go to Europe for now; instead, he will probably resume the joint work with Teddie. At the moment it is unbelievably cold here, by Californian standards; the temperature drops below zero at night, and there is snow up in the mountains. Hopefully you are not having too unpleasant a winter.
Many hugs and kisses from your lanky
Giraffe
Mumma my animal, Giraffe has snatched away everything worth reporting – yesterday my debut at USC was very pleasant – an effect of my essays about the radio, which are starting to get some attention now, after 8–10 years. Otherwise, the only thing worth mentioning is a rather strong earthquake; I was just playing the piano, and the instrument started swaying about under my hands. But nothing happened. I am in the middle of writing an essay for a psychoanalytical yearbook; a ‘technical’ study. Do be very careful with the cold weather.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Presumably a slip of the pen; perhaps Maidon Horkheimer is meant, as Horkheimer was unable to attend.
2 The composer, conductor and pianist Ingolf Dahl (1912–70), whom Adorno seems to have met for the first time at the house of Thomas Mann, had taught at the aforementioned university since 1945.
231 LOS ANGELES, 15.12.1948
15 December 1948
My dears Hippo Cow,
a thousand thanks for your letter and the splendid Christmas package. The handkerchiefs are exactly as I had imagined, and the towels are so especially large that it is a true joy to dry oneself with them. The little writing pad also arrived in good shape. Today we enclose your Christmas present; hopefully it will help to put your radio in working order again. Please give Jenny our warmest greetings – we always have so much to do that we never get around to writing. You need not worry at all about Germany;1 I already wrote to you that Max is 95% unlikely to go to Europe now, that at least means that the business will be postponed by another two years, and a great deal can still happen before then. If Ilse Mayer pays you another visit sometime, ask her to take a few pictures of you for us, they do not all look like those of Archie, and many are even quite good. Thomas Mann’s little book ‘The Genesis of a Novel’, the story of how the Faust novel was written, is going to press now, and will be out in about two months. – William Dieterle is going to Europe within the next few days to shoot some films there, first in France, then also in other countries. He is very happy about the assignment,2 for things are very quiet here in Hollywood, incredible numbers of people are without work, and the atmosphere is gloomy in the whole film industry. We do not notice anything ourselves, as we have nothing to do with all that.
Many hugs and kisses
from your lanky
Giraffe
Mumma my animal, a thousand thanks for the letter. As for Else’s, it means nothing to me, though I do think that you can safely write to her that you do not understand her attitude, above all that, through silence, she evades addressing the matter instead of helping to clarify it. – We listened to Mahler’s 2nd from the end of the 2nd movement on; it was not all that bad by Walter’s standards, and above all properly rehearsed, but in the last movement before the choir entry I felt it quite fell apart this time, a choral finale is only possible in real polyphony – the structure is simply not sufficient. – Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 Maria Wiesengrund had written: ‘Is a journey there directly imminent? I completely share Franz’s grave reservations about that and am quite convinced that he is right. – The poisonous plants thrive under the manure, following the motto “The Jews will be hanged or burned”.’ (The letter dates from 13 December 1948.)
2 assignment: EO.
232 LOS ANGELES, 21.12.1948
21 December 1948
My dears Hippo Cow,
just imagine what a special Christmas present we received: through a formal error on the part of our landlady, the eviction has become invalid, which meant that she had to send us a new one and the whole business will be postponed for another two months. We were so amazed at the decision that we could not believe it at first. We made immediate use of our high spirits to go for a magnificent drive on Sunday: first to the desert, then back through a 1,300-metre pass with a great deal of snow. We have hardly ever been so happy here in California, and then in the evening we ate at a nice little Mexican restaurant in Hollywood. – The Pollocks have meanwhile returned from Argentina in a state of great satisfaction, while Ilse Mayer has just set off there for 5/6 months with several assignments, but then intends to return to New York. We are working as hard as always, Teddie is trying to finish a psychological essay before Christmas. Hopefully you will have a nice peaceful Christmas, with many hugs and kisses from
your lanky
Giraffe
Mumma my animal, I send you my heartiest Christmas wishes, and am deeply sad that we cannot celebrate together – it is on such occasions that I become most painfully aware of our spatial (only spatial) separation. Hopefully it will not be lonely for you this time. We are naturally in a much more festive mood than we would otherwise have been through the new delay in our housing business. Christmas Eve at the Horkheimers, Christmas Day Lang and Lily here, Boxing Day at Norah’s. New Year’s Eve at the Pollocks. We all plan to relax completely from the end of the week until the start of the new year, Max too – we are all very much in need of it.
If I might make a Christmas wish, then it is that you might receive Charlotte, who will soon contact you, in a friendly manner. You need not warn me of her failings, for no one knows them better than I do and they are clear enough – but, aside from that, she is still one of the most delightful people I know, and also very sweet. We have had another great reconciliation, pourvu que ça dure, and I am sure she will get in touch; she was feeling miserable.
Heartiest kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
233 LOS ANGELES, 27.12.1948
27 December 1948
My dears Hippo Cow,
so, we had a lovely cosy Christmas up at the Horkheimers, Maidon had made a special effort with the preparations, and later in the evening there was even a Santa Claus who came and brought everyone an extra parcel. On Sunday we just had Lily and Lang over here for goose with a Christmas tree, it was very peaceful. Yesterday an idiotic party at Norah’s with a lot of people we did not know, but entirely uninteresting. She is in the best of spirits, for Anina has finally managed it, and hopes to have her child in June. Apropos children: I feel sorry for Louische with his grandchildren; the only consolation we could offer is that, as Archie has taken his name,1 he will no doubt become immortal and is no doubt in better hands than with Franz’s brats. Tonight, Anita Alexander has invited her daughter to stay here for three nights, apparently she is very independent and Anita merely wants to know that we are looking after her at night.
Dear Hippo Cow, have a good start to the new year with hearty kisses from your lanky
Giraffe
Mumma my animal, the holidays were very pleasant, especially last night, après Norah, at Lang’s with champagne and foie gras. We received wonderful presents, terribly luxurious ones from Luli, but also charming and especially affectionate ones from Lix, who is incidentally in New York to have a look at his grandchildren – that is how old we have become. I still managed to finish my big essay for the yearbook Psychoanalysis and Society before the holidays; now I am having a little rest. It is raining cats and dogs. Hopefully you are not having such a rough time with the New York weather, which is apparently quite indescribable this time. – Mietze is back in San Francisco, still living with Robert and Anita, but is looking for a little house of her own in the country, to everyone’s relief. We are spending more time than ever with Max, who really is the closest and the only one for us – aside from the massive Hippo Cow. Make a good start to the new year, and think of us as we are thinking of you. We are celebrating at the Pollocks. Hopefully poor Julie is finally feeling better.
The very heartiest of kisses from your old child
Teddie
Original: typewritten letter.
1 A reference to Adorno’s middle name, Ludwig.