ABSTRACT
In 1941, Gunnar and Alva were separated by World War II. Gunnar was in the United States, engaged in a study of “the Negro problem and modern democracy,” while Alva and their three children remained behind. Trans-Atlantic travel was impossible, which Gunnar refused to accept. As he fell into a depression, he engaged in an intense process of emotional expression and reflection in the hope of reaching a catharsis. Gunnar’s letters to Alva oscillated between professions of his ardent love and desperate need for her presence, on the one hand, and repeated threats that if she did not join him immediately he would commit suicide or divorce her, on the other. Gunnar argued that if she had to choose between him and the children, he should obviously come first; regardless of her own professional commitments, she should also put his work ahead of hers. These importunate demands were familiar to Alva, but this time she resisted them. Chapters 12–15 trace the arc of this crisis, probing the intersection between their individual psychological issues and their struggles to develop a relationship that was not fatally undermined by societally defined patterns of asymmetrical gender relations.
