Saul Steinberg: A Biography Part 35

"Oh, that's easy": From the unedited transcript of Glueck's interview for "The Artist Speaks"; Anne Hollander, interview, December 5, 2009. ST said much the same about the number 4 in a conversation with Ann Birstein, who asked about his July 5, 1969, TNY cover, in which a 4 is shooting skyward from a firecracker. When she asked, "What's going on here?" he replied, "Oh, Ann, you can never trust a 4"; Ann Birstein, interview, December 10, 2009.

"a problem, a weakness": Stein, "Notes on an interview with Saul Steinberg," YCAL, Box 38.

"the serious core": Smith, "Thought and Spoken," Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 100.

Much of the fan mail: Typical is a letter from the writer Judith Thurman, signed as Judith Ann Thurman, a high school senior in Flus.h.i.+ng, New York, YCAL, Box 17.

One group thought it was: YCAL, Box 17, folder of fan mail for 1963.

"make people jittery": Glueck, unedited transcript of interview, pp. 11017.

"get a gig for a workshop": Lee Hall, Elaine & Bill: Portrait of a Marriage (New York: Cooper Square, 1993), p. 235.

"Call Elaine about museum": Information that follows is from this list, YCAL, Box 17.

"a fresh eye": Glueck, unedited transcript of interview.

He donated drawings as well as money: Evidence can be found throughout his YCAL archives, but in this instance I cite YCAL, Box 17, for his activity in 1963, before and after the Kennedy a.s.sa.s.sination.

He wanted to talk about this: HS to ST, October 8, 1963, YCAL, microfilm letters.

He accomplished everything he wanted to do: Itinerary, YCAL, Box 3, Folder 196465.

"mild p.o.r.nography": HS to ST, December 31, 1963, YCAL, microfilm letters.

She joked that she would steal: HS to ST, May 1964, YCAL, microfilm letters. She was asking if he wanted her to keep looking, as she had not yet found one she thought suitable.

In a gossipy letter to Saul: HS to ST, July 9 [1964], YCAL, microfilm letters, reel 14445.

In this instance, she hoped it would lessen: HS to ST, December 31, 1963, YCAL, microfilm letters.

On the spur of the moment: The itinerary that follows is from YCAL, Box 3, Folder 196465.

They inspired him to visit: Angelini was in charge of the UNESCO restoration of a World Heritage site. ST speaks of "several visits" to Ethopia in Glueck, unedited transcript of interview. He writes of the first in the itinerary in YCAL, Box 3, and of the second in a letter to AB, March 28, 1970, SSF, where he wrote that the second visit with Angelini to Lalibela "was excellent and leaves a fine memory." He repeated that it was "especially beautiful for its location, the magical plateau."

"a terrific plateau": Glueck, unedited transcript of interview.

He spent the next day: ST, 1964 datebook, YCAL, Box 3.

"I'm still confused": ST to AB, February 19, 1964.

He made another list: List on the back of a bill from Alexander Lindey, January 31, 1964, YCAL, Box 17.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY DOESN'T STOP.

"The fact that stuff gets printed": ST to AB, April 29, 1964, SSF.

"rediscovering Cubism": For representative examples of drawings that came to fruition in the early 1970s, see WMAA, pp. 22426.

She tried to joke that the patch: HS to ST, April 3, 1964, YCAL, microfilm letters and Box 17; C. Bueno, accountant, to HS, March 19, 1964, noting that ST paid HS $300 per month. He was also transferring money into her account to pay the real estate taxes on her house, and he paid all their joint income taxes.

Throughout the affairs: Richard Fadem, interview, March 2, 2010.

"needed a lot of hand-holding": Wendy Weil, interview, March 22, 2010.

"vulnerable to the stupidity": ST to AB, April 9, 1965, SSF.

"amorous delights and suffering": ST to AB, April 6, 1964. SSF.

he kept a dream journal: ST, dream sequences, 9/17, 12/15, 12/16, in 1964 datebook, YCAL, Box 3.

He transposed his next dream: American Council of Learned Societies, Newsletter, February 1964.

"at a crossroads": ST to AB, July 16, 1964, SSF.

One of his honors came: Paul Rand to ST, January 28, 1964; Howard S. Weaver, acting secretary of Yale University, wrote to say that the Council of Residential College Masters had voted to offer a five-year appointment; YCAL, Box 17.

He was flattered: James Laughlin to ST, January 2, 1964. YCAL, Box 17.

Steinberg was invited to join: He contributed money, drawings, and the use of his name and was rewarded with an invitation to the 1965 inaugural activities; YCAL, Box 17.

Jean Stein and William vanden Heuvel: The invitation is in YCAL, Box 17; Robert Kennedy to ST, February 2, 1965, YCAL, Box 15.

He did all these things alone: ST used to joke that he could set up a mirror to be like a periscope and use it to look into Mimi Gross's bedroom, on the fourth floor front of her parents' house (now a museum); Mimi Gross, interview, March 9, 2010.

"the Nivola family spectacle": ST to AB, April 8, 1964, SSF.

Ruth Nivola was one of a number of mothers: Ruth Nivola, interview, September 22, 2007; Dore Ashton, interview, February 24, 2010; letter from an unidentified woman in YCAL, Box 75, who objected to ST's invitation to her fifteen-year-old daughter for a private lunch in Springs.

He even had calling cards printed: These objects remain in the personal collection of Claire Nivola.

"She is fifteen": Dore Ashton, interviews, January 20, 2009, and February 24, 2010.

"put such temptation": Mary Carr to ST, on Mademoiselle stationery, December 1, 1966, YCAL, Box 16.

He did, however, frighten Anna: Ricardo Aragno was the literature and culture correspondent for La Stampa. Information that follows is from an interview with Dr. Anna Aragno, December 19, 2007.

The next day he drew her portrait: Because of the limitation on the number of images of ST's art SSF permitted, I may not reproduce the "Portrait of Anna" here. In the December 19, 2007, interview, she said she was entirely unaware of ST's relations.h.i.+p with SS until I told her of it. She also said, "There was something inappropriate about him. His behavior was a sort of facade, a mask. You never really touched him; it was all surface."

"smokey [Bear] hat": ST, datebook, August 4, 1964, YCAL, Box 3. All information about the trip comes from this datebook, SS's diary in Box 110, and ST to AB, August 27, 1964.

Several decades later, when she stopped: Information that follows is from SS, "My Life and Travels in Post Cards, Part II, by Sigrid Savage," YCAL, Box 112. Although this is a continuation of "My Life in Postcards," she gave it a slightly different t.i.tle in this continuation of her life with ST.

"Tired now": ST to AB, August 27, 1964, SSF.

CHAPTER THIRTY: I HAVE TO MOVE.

"I have to move": ST to AB, September 6, 1965, SSF.

He did nothing about renewing his lease: NYU to ST, December 20, 1963; July 15, 1964; August 24, 1964; YCAL, Box 17.

They flew home via Puerto Rico: ST, 1965 date book, YCAL, Box 3.

Before they left, Steinberg had mailed: ST, January 1965, datebook, notation to complete the drawings he sent to Maeght on November 11, 1964, YCAL, Box 3; ST to Aime Maeght, November 12, 1964, copy at SSF.

It was quickly apparent: Quotes are from ST to Maeght, November 12, 1964. According to SSF, ST allegedly sent 33 photos but only 22 were used. SSF dates their beginning to 1959, with most of those published in 196162. The entire series can be viewed at http://www.magnumphotos.com by searching the terms "Inge Morath" and "Saul Steinberg."

Even there, progress was hampered: ST to Aime Maeght, March 12, 1965, copy at SSF: "This has to be a very fine book."

he wanted Maeght to ask: ST to Aime Maeght, September 13, 1965, SSF (my translation).

"celebrities who wrote c.r.a.p": ST used the word conneries, which can be translated as stupidity or nonsense, but because it is not used in polite company, it usually deserves the harsher, slangier translation.

Sartre and Nabokov both refused: Beckett sent a polite letter saying that he had no competence to interpret Steinberg's work and could not risk serving badly an artist he much admired; Jacques Dupin to ST, January 3, 1966, YCAL, Box 15 (my translation).

To soften the blow: ST to Aime Maeght, October 6, 1965, copy in SSF (my translation); correspondence in YCAL, Box 15, between Lindey, Maeght, and Robert Delpire, who wanted to make a doc.u.mentary film about ST. Maeght said he wanted to publish the book under his own name and refused Delpire's offer to publish.

In Paris he met Jean Folon: Correspondence between ST and Folon pertaining to this and other projects Folon wished to pursue is in YCAL, Boxes 8, 15, and 16, among others.

whose writing he admired: Italo Calvino, "La Plume la Premiere Personne," Derriere le Miroir no. 224 (May 1977).

On an impulse, he flew: ST to Aime Maeght, March 12, 1965, copy at SSF. ST wrote that he spoke to Hamish Hamilton in London and Harper in New York and both were interested, and he was sure that Rowohlt in Germany and Feltrinelli in Italy would also want the book.

"milk the [paper's] exchequer": Michael Davie to ST, December 8, 1964, and February 26, 1965, YCAL, Box 15. One of Cynthia Nolan's earliest letters to ST is dated August 1950, YCAL, Box 5.

He was Gigi's witness: SS to ST, February 20, 1965, YCAL, Box 109.

Off he went to Florida: ST, 1965 datebook, YCAL, Box 3.

It irritated him: Jeanne-Claude and Christo, interview, August 9, 2007.

Steinberg liked even more: ST, notes from conversation with Christo and Jeanne-Claude's biographer, Bert Chernow, n.d., YCAL, Box 123. Published in Chernow, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, pp. 4748.

Priscilla Morgan usually had eight: Priscilla Morgan, interview, July 2008. At one of her dinners where ST was not the center of attention, he repeated a version-again to Jeanne-Claude and Christo-of what he had said in their home. Seated silently in an armchair in Morgan's apartment, he said he might as well go home because "everyone is talking and no one is listening to me."

"more than enjoyable": Jean Stein, interview, March 8, 2009.

"Conversation seemed to make him awkward": Bellow, remarks delivered at Steinberg's memorial service, copy in SSF and also in James Atlas's papers at the University of Chicago.

For the next several months: ST liked the acerbic Spark so much that he called on her frequently when he was in Rome. She sent a telegram to ST, care of Maeght, on February 25, 1966, asking if he wanted to visit her at the Silvretta Hotel, Klosters, Switzerland; YCAL, Box 15.

In short, he was out: Often, if the evening was particularly memorable, he also made a drawing and sent it to the hostess.

She was so insistant that LSD: The first mention of mescaline is in June 1955, in ST, datebook, YCAL, Box 3. Smith, S:I, p. 240, n. 134, posits that ST might have received the drug from Henri Michaux, who was a proponent of mescaline. I found no direct evidence to support this, nor did I find any concrete information about his supplier.

"They wanted to see": ST, typescript of interview with Adam Gopnik, filed as "Interview" in YCAL, Box 67. The conversation took place in 1993, and ST mistakenly said he took the LSD "in Connecticut."

"something very important": ST to AB, July 12, 1965, SSF.

"certain differences and suspicions": ST to AB, September 6, 1965, SSF.

Gigi had never liked Greenwich Village: ST, 1965 datebook, YCAL, Box 3; SS, "Synopsis: My Life in America," entry for September 23, 1965, YCAL, Box 108.

Most of her lovers still wanted: SS, correspondence in YCAL, Box 109.

Bill de Kooning gave him: Appraisers for the Pace Gallery gave de Kooning's drawing a value of $400,000 sometime in the 1980s; YCAL, Box 39.

"well being doesn't count": ST to AB, October 6, 1965, SSF.

"look around for something": George Plimpton to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 15. The Byron Gallery, New York, thanked him for providing "original work for a poster," along with such artists as (among others) Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Richard Lindner, Louise Nevelson, and Andy Warhol; YCAL, Box 15.

He did, however, manage to contribute: ST donated the drawing as a prize for a New Year's Eve benefit for Chamber Music in the Circle, Bleecker Street, NY, YCAL, Box 15. Schneider's letter is in YCAL, Box 61.

Steinberg was never one to brood over: HS, interview, October 11, 2007: "I always had the urge to share with him anything I read that mattered to me. ST used to laugh and say I always had to give the citation for anyone I quoted."

Hedda always carried: The notebooks and individual sheets of paper from them are found throughout the YCAL boxes but are not otherwise identified.

Dore Ashton was "shocked": Dore Ashton, interviews, January 20, 2009, and February 22, 2010; Dore Ashton to ST, "Wednesday," YCAL, Box 5.

As he doodled: ST, 1965 datebook, YCAL, Box 3; ST, "Notes on Writing," YCAL, Box 15.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: THE DESIRE FOR FAME.

"I was doing so well": ST to AB, August 17, 1966, SSF.

"camouflaged as a cartoon": Stein, unedited transcript of interview.

"a form of brooding": Ibid. ST continued: The doodle "contains only a combination of reflexes, a combination of things that the hand knows, the brain knows, but it's all half asleep and it's mechanical." He said doodling was responsible for what he called "mechanical drawings," such as the one in The New World on p. 13, which he called "A man reasons. The man thinks."

"say something interesting": ST, datebook, November 4 and 13, 1965, YCAL, Box 3.