Perhaps Adler’s pronounced productivity during 1914 can be traced to his loneliness in the absence of his family: Raissa had taken their four children for a visit to her family in Russia, and although Adler could see the threat of war on the horizon, he agreed they should go, hoping the war’s onset would be delayed until his family’s safe return. It was not. It was five months into the war before Raissa and the children were able to obtain official permission to make the arduous journey home.