Walter Gropius: Letters to an Angel, 1927––35

A previously unpublished selection of letters by Walter Gropius to his daughter, Manon, reveals a personal side of the architect and Bauhaus founder. In Walter Gropius: Letters to an Angel, 1927––35, James Reidel chronicles a decisive period in Gropius's life, from his last months at the Bauhaus until his move to England. At the center of the letters is the architect's quest for a closer relationship with his daughter, whom he rarely saw following his 1920 divorce from her mother, Alma Mahler-Werfel. However, the correspondence also offers rare insights into Gropius's political, social, and religious views, and it highlights those professional activities that he deemed worthy of his daughter's attention——housing, C.I.A.M., theater, and automobile design. Gropius's last letter was written shortly before Manon died from the complications of polio.