Library

The vast number of surviving letters between Walter Benjamin and Theodor Wiesengrund-Adorno, a collection of correspondence here brought together in its entirety for the first time, is as unknown as its contents: in 1966 Adorno and Gershom Scholem edited a collection of Benjamin's letters, A Adorno compiled eleven letters written by Benjamin to him and two letters he wrote to Benjamin; in 1970, Rolf Tedman edited a series of Adorno's letters to Benjamin, which date from the 1930s and are closely related to Benjamin's major works of this period. This collection has been revised and expanded to include additional letters. Rolf Tedmann and Hermann Swinburne, editors of the complete works of Walter Benjamin, have published final excerpts from the letters of Adorno and Benjamin as an integral part of this edition. These documents not only help illustrate the origins and development of Benjamin's work, but also reveal the intense debates that took place during their correspondence.