Uwe Johnson was a letter writer, but he seldom wrote anything personal, however much his addressees longed for something of that nature. Instead, many of his letters contain Johnson miniatures: townscapes, literary character descriptions, impressions. Of course, there are also other letters that reveal the easily vulnerable author - letters that seek to create distance, set limits. In recent years many volumes of letters have been published, setting the focus of this volume: Johnson's correspondence with Walter Kempowski, Fritz J. Raddatz, Günter and Anna Grass, Max Frisch and Siegfried Unseld give us insight into difficult relations and at the same time present a literary historical panorama of the 1960s and '70s.Also included in the volume are a comparison of Johnson and Hein, two "Chroniclers of Reality", re-readings of "Heute Neunzig Jahr" and "Skizze eines Verunglückten" as well as in-depth reviews.