Within Four Walls

"When they met in the spring of 1936 in Paris, they were both exiles from Hitler's Germany. Hannah Arendt was twenty-nine, Heinrich Blucher thirty-seven. Following the German invasion of France early in 1941, they had to leave Paris. They arrived in New York in May, 1941. The correspondence starts in August, 1936, when Arendt traveled to Geneva to attend the founding conference of the World Jewish Congress, and ends in September, 1968, when she was in Basle for the celebration of Karl Jaspers' eightieth birthday.". "What emerges from this correspondence is the life story of two exceptional people, two Germans who fled their country for different reasons. It is the story of their life in exile in Paris and in New York, the hardships of that exile, their dependence on each other, their deepening love for each other, their continued exchange of ideas, Arendt's teaching and writing, her involvement with Jewish life and organizations in Europe and in Israel, and Blucher's years at The New School and at Bard College. It is also an important document of the 1930s in Germany and France, of World War II, and the post-war life in ravaged European cities. Meanwhile, there is love of food and drink, and of friendships, both intellectual and affectionate, with Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Alfred Kazin, and the complex relationship with Martin Heidegger and his wife."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.