In December 1945, Thomas Mann wrote a now famous letter to Adorno, in which he formulated the principle of montage that he had adopted in his novel "Doctor Faustus". The author acknowledged the valuable loans he had drawn from the philosopher's musical works and called on him to help him further convincingly render the form and work of his hero, the composer Leverkühn. The collaboration was successful (Adorno offered information, thoughts, and even designs for the composer's supposed later musical works) and essentially formed the basis of a correspondence that continued until Mann's death in 1955.

The correspondence seals the relationship between the two men that Adorno called "a piece of realized utopia", a rare meeting of creative intensity between literary tradition and aesthetic modernism. In the letters, Thomas Mann declares, among other things, that he found Adorno's "Minima Moralia" "a captivating read" or that he eagerly awaits his book about Wagner - "I will devour it, like the one in Revelation who eats a book 'sweet as honey'". Adorno, in turn, offers detailed and often enthusiastic comments on Mann's later writings, such as "The Chosen One", "The Abandoned" or "Confessions of the Impostor Felix Krull". Their correspondence also touches on critically important personal matters, such as the return from exile to post-war Germany.

The letters are accompanied by extensive notes from the editors, particularly enlightening about the works, events, and individuals mentioned or alluded to by their distinguished authors.