From Germany in early 1913, Hartley writes vibrant letters about the Expressionist artists in Munich, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and their group Der Blaue Reiter. Hartley's missives quickly become up-to-the-minute exposés on avant-garde trends in Germany with childlike lamentations over the bustling, modern city of Berlin. His glory in Germany turns solemn with the onset of World War I and the death of his close friend, a German officer named Karl von Freyburg--a loss vividly depicted in Hartley’s renowned war motif paintings from this period. Steiglitz's correspondence from New York gives an American point of view of a war in Europe and chronicles exhibitions at "291," his own gallery for modern art. Although Stieglitz's letters are less personal than Hartley's, he shows subtle signs of resentment toward the famous 1913 Armory Show, which usurped his reign over modernism in America.
Closing in late 1915 with Hartley's return to an America filled with anti-German sentiment and a New York seasoned by the influx of modern art, My Dear Stieglitz provides an intimate perspective on modern art and the human condition during the tempestuous years of the early twentieth century.
