Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization grew from 1950-51 Washington lectures and faced publication politics

Evidence

The Freud book had grown out of a series of lectures Marcuse had given in 1950-1 at the Washington School of Psychiatry. In November 1951 Marcuse wrote to Horkheimer, whom he had recently visited in Frankfurt in August: You asked me for the plan of the Freud book. As I am venturing into an area that is very risky, both privately and objectively, I have decided to write down everything that occurs to me first, and then rewrite it. So I have no planapart from the ideas I mentioned to you in Frankfurt.' Horkheimer saw the manuscript in its earliest stages, and Marcuse kept him informed of its progress. In the late summer of 1954 Horkheimer met Marcuse while visiting the USA in connection with his Chicago professorship. By the way, Herbert’s work seems to me to be quite decent,’ he wrote to Adorno. Although the psychological approach does not really appeal to us, there are so many splendid things in the book that we should accept it completely. Apart from publishing a series of extracts in the journal, a complete translation is definitely one of the most important things the planned "Series of German Translations" could produce.' A few days later, in the face of predictable difficulties in securing finance for the translation series, he wrote, My view is that we should publish Herbert’s book as an Institute publication, whether in English or in German. This will be no obstacle to prior publication of some parts of it in the journal.’ After Horkheimer’s return to Frankfurt, Marcuse wrote to him, `It would be wonderful if the German edition could appear as an Institute textit belongs to the Institute and its director.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2124