Ernest Hopf letters to Alice Lightner

This collection of 54 letters documents the early relationship between German-American artist Ernest Hopf and American writer Alice Lightner. After they meet in New York, probably in 1931, Hopf writes to Lightner while she vacations in Maine and visits her parents in Tryon, North Carolina. His early letters, many illustrated with his drawings, describe his art projects, his loneliness in New York, his attempts to find steady work during the Great Depression, his daily life, his concerns about his mother's health, and his job on a steamboat on the Hudson River.

Later Hopf travels to Germany to visit his ailing mother and his family. He discusses his family, visits with friends and family, the countryside around his parents' home, and the political situation in Germany. He comments on the "German national revolution" and the rise of the Third Reich, the "Nazi movement," and Adolf Hitler. Hopf has difficulty purchasing a return ticket to the United States, and much of his correspondence from Germany is taken up with ticket prices and his sailing options. Ultimately Lightner purchases his return ticket to New York on the Hamburg-American Line. Hopf returns to New York in late August 1933, having spent four months in Europe.