July 2, 1941

T. W. Adorno, Esquire
290 Riverside Drive
New York City

Dear Mr. Adorno:

I thank you for letting me read the
Music Listening article, which I enclose. I
find it extremely interesting and accurate so
far as it goes. But I do think it is a little
sketchy.

I have just received the music
appreciation study and I am looking forward to a
great deal of pleasure in reading it.

An article about the problem of 12-tone
technique might be interesting or not. I can't
tell in advance. Why don't you try?

Very sincerely yours,

Dictated but
not read.

Copy.

William Morrow & Company, Inc.
386 Fourth Avenue
New York City

July 7, 1941.

Dear Mr. Adorno :

I have read a good deal of the material you left with me, and I have discussed it with my associates, and I am sorry to tell you that I do not think this is a book for our list.

For one thing, this is hard reading for the layman. In talking to you the points came out clearly but in reading this ( I am speaking now of On A Social Critique of Radio Music) I had to work hard to make out the meaning. I rather suspect this is the fault of your collaborator, who has an academic style - at least, you do not talk that way. But in this I may be quite wrong.

But even if the excellent ideas expressed quite often in the manuscripts were put into livelier and more readable English I do not think there would be a large enough audience for this book to satisfy you as author or justify us as publishers. It would be a valuable book, and in times less grim than these a publisher might feel he could indulge in it.

Thank you so much for bringing it in. I am holding the material for your further instructions.

With best wishes,
Sincerely yours,

signed: Frances Phillips.

INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

429 WEST 117TH STREET
NEW YORK, N. Y.

Research Staff:

Max Horkheimer
Director

Frederick Pollock
Assistant Director

Theodore W. Adorno
Henryk Grossman
Julian Gumperz
Leo Lowenthal
Herbert Marcuse
Franz Neumann
Felix J. Weil
Karl A. Wittfogel
Members

Advisory Committee:

Eugene N. Anderson
Charles A. Beard
Edwin Borchard
Morris R. Cohen
Alfred E. Cohn
Stephen Duggan
Henry Pratt Fairchild
Sydney B. Fay
Lloyd K. Garrison
Calvin B. Hoover
Philip C. Jessup
Lewis L. Lorwin
Robert S. Lynd
Charles H. McIlwain
Robert M. MacIver
Frank Mankiewicz
Charles E. Merriam
Wesley C. Mitchell
William A. Neilson
Howard W. Odum
Frederick M. Padelford
Max Radin
Lindsay Rogers
George H. Sabine
Thorsten Sellin
James T. Shotwell
John Whyte
Louis Wirth
Howard Woolston

Tel. UNiversity 4-3200
(Columbia University)
Ext. 276

Mr. Virgil Thomson
New York Herald Tribune
New York City

June 16, 1941.

My dear Mr. Thomson :

I wish to thank you wholeheartedly for your
letter and the article in yesterday's Herald
Tribune.

It goes without saying that your action does not
only help considerably, in spreading the ideas I
suggest, but it is also very important for the
continuation of my studies in this field. I am,
of course, most anxious to discuss with you some
of the problems involved. Would you kindly let me
know whether and when I could see you ? Friday and
Saturday would be the best days for me.

Today I am sending you, under separate cover, a
mimeographed copy of a paper which I read at the
Office of Radio Research about two years ago.
Sketchy as it is, it may give you an idea of the
total approach which I pursue in the music study
on radio.

Another study of mine concerning the structural
changes serious music undergoes through radio, is
about to be published in the volume "Radio Research
1941" of the Office of Radio Research. An extensive critical
analysis of the Damrosch Music Appreciation
Hour will appear in the third volume of our STUDIES
IN PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, later this year.

Further studies are going to be completed soon and
I shall be delighted to let you have any study on
music which I regard as tolerably satisfactory.

Published by the Institute of Social Research

429 West 117th Street, New York, N. Y.

June 27, 1941.

Mr. Vérgil Thomson
New York Herald Tribune
New York City

Dear Mr. Thomson :

This is the little contribution I have to offer
for the campaign against the appreciation racket.

Unfortunately, I have not had the time to go over
the manuscript and it may, therefore, contain some
typographical errors and perhaps also some minor
mistakes with regard to details. I herewith beg to
apologize for these in advance.

Should you decide to use some of the material for
the column, I shall be grateful if you would let me
know since this study is the property of the Office
of Radio Research and I would have to make the necessa-
ry arrangements with Dr. Lazarsfeld.

I saw Miss Phillips the day before yesterday. She was
exceedingly nice and seemed to be seriously interested
in the matter, but, of course, she could not make any
decision before having gone through the material.

Incidentally, what do you think about a little article
concerning the problem of 12-tone technique ?

With kindest regards

October 29, 1941

W. T. Adorno, Esq.
611 West 113th Street
New York City

Dear Mr. Adorno:

Miss Lederman spoke to me about the
publication of your Damrosch piece. She seems to be
not unfavorably disposed. I have also interested the
editors of a magazine called, Tomorrow, who think they
might like to publish it serially. Since my copy is
temporarily in the hands of Mrs. Curtiss of Smith
College, would you be so kind as to send the other one
(unless you prefer to wait until mine comes back) to
Mr. Harold Vursell at Tomorrow magazine, 11 East 44th
Street.

Both Mr. Vursell and Miss Lederman seem
encouraging about the project. I am sure we will find
a publisher for it somewhere.

Very sincerely yours,

Dictated but
not read.

T.W.Adorno,
316 So.Kenter Ave.
Brentwood Heights,
Los Angeles, Calif.

December 19, 1941.

Dear Mr. Thomson:

I take great pleasure in sending you the *rough* draft of an
English version of my little article on Sibelius which, as you perhaps
remember, appeared in our periodical three years ago. Since I know
that the piece needs some editing if you see it fit for publication,
it has not been "checked" but I just drafted as literal a translation
as possible. If you think it worth while do with it whatever you please.
I know the matter could be in no better hands than yours.

I got a very kind letter from Miss Lederman who professes
her utmost interest in the Damrosch Study and promises to do everything
in her power to aid its publication. I feel pretty confident that in
case you would talk over the matter with her, arrangements for a sepe-
rate publication in *Modern Music* (perhaps with the aid of the Office of
Radio Research) could be made. Many thanks in anticipation.

I hope you will come here before long. It is of a truly
Mediterranean beauty, and the conditions for quiet and undisturbed work
are ideal. Not even Shirley Temple interferes.

With kindest regards

T.W.Adorno
316 So.Kenter Ave.
Brentwood Heights
Los Angeles, Calif.

June 7, 1942.

Dear Mr. Thomson:

Some weeks ago my parents sent me your Toscanini article and I was very happy about it. I simply have to endorse every word you wrote. The category of effect by which you characterize the Toscanini style is the aim of the "efficiency" which I tried to characterize in the fetish article. I think that it is a great trouvaille that the much advertized Toscanini objectivity and matter-of-factness is actually conditioned by the very same success mechanism which formerly produced exactly the opposite type. But frankly, I have the feeling that we are almost the only people who see these things and have not yet fallen themselves victim to the machinery of musical organization.

The article of B.H.Haggin in the *Nation* of May 30th, p.638. is very significant in this respect and I am proud and happy to be attacked together with you. Who is the man and which is the background of the whole affair ? I think something ought to be done about it but I do not want to take any step without having your opinion.

Some weeks ago I sent you my recently completed cycle of ditties and I am most anxious to know whether you like them. I also made arrangements to have the new issue of our "Studies" being sent to you and I hope it will interest you.

Please drop me a line.

With kindest regards

WESTERN
UNION

1204

<table><thead><tr><th>SYMBOLS</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>DL = Day Letter</td></tr><tr><td>NT = Overnight Telegram</td></tr><tr><td>LC = Deferred Cable</td></tr><tr><td>NLT = Cable Night Letter</td></tr><tr><td>Ship Radiogram</td></tr></tbody></table>

R. B. WHITE
PRESIDENT

NEWCOMB CARLTON
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

J. C. WILLEVER
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

The filing time shown in the date line on telegrams and day letters is STANDARD TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is STANDARD TIME at point of destination

NPA1 AAD 25 NT XC

WestLosangeles Calif Feb 11 1942

Virgil Thomson

Herald Tribune

Thank you whole heartedly for article with feeling of a man who knows
his manuscripts in the bottle. Reached a living eye most sincerely
yours

Adorno

836A Feb 12

THE COMPANY WILL APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS FROM ITS PATRONS CONCERNING ITS SERVICE

June 12, 1942

T. W. Adorno, Esq.
316 So. Kenter Avenue
Brentwood Heights
Los Angeles, California

Dear Mr. Adorno:

The attack, which I have only seen
today, turns out to be a quite clear outline of your
thesis. I am delighted. I recommend doing nothing
at all about it. The less you say, the stronger
your position will be, because Mr. Haggin will be
obliged to make further exposition of your thesis
in the process of attacking it.

Thank you for the lovely songs.
They are very delicate and very tender.

Best and always faithfully,

T.W.Adorno
316 So. Kenter Ave.
Brentwood Heights
Los Angeles, Calif.

October 21, 1942.

Dear Mr. Thomson:

It is a pleasure for me to follow your invitation and to let
you know something about my present work and existence. As a matter of
fact, it is more than a pleasure. For the isolation unavoidably bound
up with the life of a man like myself here in the West - not to mention
the curfew restrictions which do not allow me to leave the house after
8 p.m. - leads to an almost desperate urge to speak to the very few men
with whom one believes to have something decisive in common; and I hard-
ly need to tell you that I met nobody from the New World who gave me
this feeling as strongly as you did, quite apart from what you have done
for me by your publications.

We live in a quiet nice little house in Brentwood, not far,
by the way, from Schönberg's place. My work here, apart from those
little songs, has been almost entirely scholarly. Horkheimer and I work
on a philosophical book analyzing the present situation under the view-
point of the dialectics of rationalism and enlightenment which today
apparently have overreached themselves. A section on Mythology and En-
lightenment is finished - we now plan to elaborate first the part dealing
with present mass-culture. If you read the articles on the End of Reason
and on Veblen in the last issue of our periodical you will easily see
the direction at which we aim. Apart from that, we have done, and con-
tinue to do, some work for Washington, mainly concerning German problems,
which may prove helpful.

All would be good and right, were it not for the fact that we
live in a world in which the idea to seclude oneself and to write quiet-
ly, undisturbedly sentence after sentence, has not only the touch of an
oblessed luxury - which would not deter us at all - but even of the
cynical and, above all, of the impotent. The products themselves are
not neutral against the conditions under which they are created and in
the present situation the external futility of la science pour la science
makes itself felt in one's own writings, marring them with the marks of
the superfluous. There is an almost insuperable contradiction between
the critical contents of our writings and their intrinsic presuppositions
It is hard to take for granted, within one's own process of production,
the very same conditions of life which, as we try to show, do not pre-
vail any longer. Of course, all this has something to do with the spe-
cial situation of our Institute, saved from the Nazis and brought over
here in its entirety, with all the external and internal difficulties
of outsiderdom. The exceptional position the Institute took, namely,
to stick without compromise and "adjustment" to our convictions, un-
popular though they were, tends to increase our isolation. What I want
is not to give in but rather to overcome this isolation.

Of course this is also due to material considerations. Our
funds are limited and I shall have to think, in the long run, of making
some money. The right thing to do appears to me to look for a function
which safeguards what we understand by intellectual integrity while al-
lowing for a living and bringing me closer to the actualities of Ameri-
can cultural life. Since you are about the only person whom I know who

- 2 -

has created for himself a position which actually combines those desiderata, and also the only one to advise and help me, I come to you once more. I think of working once again as a music critic. Teaching positions at Universities and even at Colleges are rare and getting rarer. As a music critic, I have an experience of more than twenty years. (I also was, as you perhaps do not know, for several years co-editor of the Anbruch in Vienna), having been affiliated not only with the most important musical periodicals but with newspapers as well (Frankfurter Zeitung, Vossische Zeitung). Of course, there still remains the problem of language, but since you were so kind as to encourage my English writings, I cannot believe that this problem will be insuperable, and with the help of a good secretary I think I should be capable of managing the linguistic difficulties.

Do you know of any opportunity ? What I should like most, of course, would be to collaborate with you, but I do not know whether there is any such chance. At any rate, I should be most grateful for your advice and possible help. Please do not misunderstand me. There is no hurry, no immediate need or pressure. I actually thought of some time next year. On the other hand, if something promising should turn up earlier I certainly should not like to miss it in case your own opinion is positive.

It may interest you to know that Mr. Runes withdrew from his obligation to publish my "Philosophy of Advanced Music" in an almost credibly rude and ill-bred manner. Mr. Damrosch still rests, too.

Please forgive my bothering you with my problems: it is only due to your kindness that I am becoming such a nuisance. I wish I could see you soon.

Yours very sincerely,
J. H. Stroh

ALLEN, DIE MIR IHRE TEILNAHME ZUM TODE
VON THEODOR W. ADORNO AUSGEDRÜCKT HABEN,
DANKE ICH AUFS ALLERHERZLICHSTE

MARGARETE ADORNO

FRANKFURT, AUGUST 1969

THEODOR W. ADORNO

geb. 11. September 1903

ist am 6. August 1969 sanft entschlafen.

In tiefster Trauer

Margarete Adorno

geb. Karplus

Frankfurt/Main, Kettenhofweg 123, 9. August 1969

Die Beerdigung findet am Mittwoch, dem 13. August 1969, um 11 Uhr auf dem Frankfurter Hauptfriedhof statt.

Es wird gebeten, von Beileidsbesuchen abzusehen.