Adorno

Éducation sentimentale 61

engaging in casual affairs without ever concealing them from his wife.
She knew of his passion for the actress Renée Nell, for whom he wrote
an entire poetry album during the Los Angeles years:

Forgive me, Darling, for inventing you:

Who might dare create such a creature?

Yet I could no longer bear the shame of the masks of

activity and the screen

So, seeking help, I named your name

To bring me hope for one last time

With despicable pride from the wasted days.

In your name I have always known you,

It is you who resembles the words that have always

captivated my ears and dreams,

And since you extend your hand to me,

I must belong to her who brings such solace,

The unapproachable one who is softened by the word –

Only good spirits let themselves be conjured up.^34

Adorno’s wife knew too of another hazardous and lasting romance,
with Charlotte Alexander, the wife of his friend and doctor, Dr Robert
Alexander. Charlotte Alexander lived in San Francisco at the time, and
Adorno frequently went there in connection with the Public Opinion
Study Group of Berkeley University. Charlotte was in the process of
getting a divorce. When the divorce came through, Adorno initially
regarded it with mixed feelings. He did not wish to lose Charlotte, but
neither could nor wished to stay with her permanently. Did the evidently
complicated divorce proceedings between Robert and Charlotte pro-
vide the basis for his reflections on divorce?

Divorce... is apt to stir up a dust-cloud that covers and discolours

all it touches. It is as if the sphere of intimacy... is transformed

into a malignant poison as soon as the relationship in which it

flourished is broken off. Intimacy between people is forbearance,

tolerance, refuge for idiosyncrasies. If dragged into the open, an

intimate relationship reveals the element of weakness it contains,

and in a divorce such outward exposure is inevitable.... professors,

after separation, break into their wives’ flats to pilfer objects from

writing desks, and well-endowed ladies denounce their husbands

for tax evasion.^35

After the divorce of Charlotte and Robert Alexander, Robert mar-
ried Anita Seligmann towards the end of 1947. She was a good friend of
Adorno’s and, as a student of sociology and philosophy, had attended
his seminars in the brief period when he had been a Privatdozent in
Frankfurt. When he learnt of her marriage he wrote to her and to