Cage's passionate, distraught and affectionate letters to Cunningham
provide a vivid portrait of the start of their life together
A New York Times critics' pick Best Art Books 2019
These early letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham will be
revelatory, for while the two are widely known as a dynamic,
collaborative duo, the story of how and when they came together has
never been fully revealed. In the 39 letters of this collection,
spanning 1942-46, Cage shows himself to be a man falling deeply in love.
When they first met at the Cornish School in Seattle in the 1930s, Cage
was 26 to Cunningham's 19. Their relationship was purely that of teacher
and student, and Cage was also very much married.
It was in Chicago that their romantic relationship would begin. Cage was
teaching at Moholy-Nagy's School of Design when Cunningham passed
through town as a dancer with the Martha Graham Company, appearing on
stage on March 14, 1942. Cage's letters, which begin in earnest a week
later, are increasingly passionate, distraught, romantic and confused,
and occasionally contain snippets of poetry and song. They are also more
than love letters, as we see intimations that resonate with our
experience of the later John Cage.
Love, Icebox takes its shape from these letters--transcribed,
chronologically ordered, and in some instances reproduced in facsimile.
Laura Kuhn, Cage's assistant from 1986 to 1992 and now longtime director
of the John Cage Trust, adds a foreword, afterword and running
commentary. Photographic illustrations of their final 18th Street loft
in New York City, as well as personal and household objects left behind,
remind us of the substance and rituals of their long-shared life.
