Love, icebox : letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham / foreword, commentary, and afterword by Laura Kuhn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cage, John, author.

Contributor:

Kuhn, Laura Diane, writer of foreword, writer of added commentary, writer of afterword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cage, John--Correspondence.

Cage, John.

Cage, John--Criticism and interpretation.

Cunningham, Merce.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Personal correspondence.

Correspondence.

Physical Description:

157 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 24 cm

Distribution:

New York, NY. : Distributed by Artbook/D.A.P.

Place of Publication:

Red Hook, New York : The John Cage Trust, 2019.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Foreword: Something of the beginning

Letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham

Afterword: Some 40 years later.

ISBN:

9781942884385

1942884389

OCLC:

1105605605

Publisher Number:

99982343826