'My dears: this is but a brief note to welcome you to the newworld, where you are now no longer all too far away from us.' So begins Adorno's letter to his parents in May 1939,welcoming them to Cuba where they had just arrived after fleeingfrom Nazi Germany at the last minute. At the end of 1939 hisparents moved again to Florida and then to New York, where theylived from August 1940 until the end of their lives. It is onlywith Adorno's move to California at the end of 1941 that hisletters to his parents start arriving once more, reporting on workand living conditions as well as on friends, acquaintances and theHollywood stars of his time. One finds reports of hiscollaborations with Max Horkheimer, Thomas Mann and Hanns Eisleralongside accounts of parties, clowning around with CharlieChaplin, and ill-fated love affairs. But the letters also show hisconstant longing for Europe: Adorno already began to think abouthis return as soon as the USA entered the war.Adorno's letters to his parents - surely the mostopen and direct letters he ever wrote - not only afford thereader a glimpse of the experiences that gave rise to the famousMinima Moralia, but also show Adorno from a previously unknown,very personal side. They end with the first reports from theravaged Frankfurt to his mother - who remained in New York- and from Amorbach, Adorno's childhood paradise
