Saul Steinberg: A Biography Part 36

After this he wrote: ST, datebook, January 20 and 30, 1966, YCAL, Box 3.

He had met Tillich: Invitations to meet Anshen in New York are in YCAL, Boxes 3 and 15; invitations for ST and SS to dine with Hannah Tillich in East Hampton begin in the autumn of 1965, shortly before Paul Tillich's death, YCAL, Box 15.

All were asked to write: This is a loose paraphrase of the jacket copy. All the contributors were men, but future contributors were to include Lillian Smith and Margaret Mead.

Tillich was well suited: Paul Tillich, My Search for Absolutes, edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen, with drawings by Saul Steinberg (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967). The jacket copy describes Tillich and ST as "close friends." It is true that they knew each other and had tremendous affinity and rapport, but it is probably an exaggeration to make the friends.h.i.+p any stronger than that. After Tillich's death, ST continued to call on his widow, and he remained friendly with her and with Anshen for many years afterward.

"this game of autobiography": Stein, unedited transcript of interview.

"in what might be called": Anshen, "Prologue," My Search for Absolutes, p. 20.

"strong and penetrating": Hannah Tillich to ST, October 9, 1966; Hannah Tillich, Christmas card to ST, n.d. 1966; both in YCAL, Box 16.

When Anshen sent Steinberg a copy: Ruth Nanda Anshen to ST, September 5, 1967, YCAL, Box 16.

"a great t.i.tle which says nothing": ST, The New World (New York: Harper & Row, 1965); Jean Stein, undated edited version of 1966 interviews with ST, YCAL, Box 69.

In preparation for the book's launch: The interviews are collected as typescripts under the names of Jean Stein, Jean Stein vanden Heuvel, and Jean Vanden and are in YCAL, Boxes 15, 16, 38, and 69. In some of them, Harold Rosenberg is a partic.i.p.ant and occasional interviewer. Portions of these interviews were published under the name Jean vanden Heuvel as "Straight from the Hand and Mouth of Steinberg." Some of Rosenberg's dialogues are in "Saul Steinberg's Art World," pp. 5154, 6768.

Now he made the conscious decision: ST to AB, August 17, 1966, SSF.

"the biography of a man": Although the the book is unpaginated, ST worked from a paginated proof during this section of the interview and referred to this drawing as being on p. 93.

In Steinberg's translation: All quotations that follow, until noted otherwise, are from Stein, unedited transcript of interview, transcripts 10A and 10B, August 19, 1965, YCAL, Box 15.

"some sort of idea": Glueck, transcript of interview.

When it appeared in The New Yorker: I refer here to the many letters scattered throughout the uncatalogued boxes of his archives.

She was hurt: SS, diary, YCAL, Boxes 108 and 111.

He went alone to Paris: ST to SS, February 23 and undated letters, 1966, YCAL, Box 109.

"very hysterical": SS to ST, "wed. 9" [ February 1966], YCAL, Box 15.

All his friends were there: A copy of a partial list of guests he personally invited is in YCAL, Box 15. It lists Alain, Buzzi, Barbara (Chase Riboud), Sandy (Calder), (Robert) Doisneau, (Robert) Delpire, Folon, Helion, Hayter, Ionesco, James Jones, Knoop, Lica, Matta, Rowohlt, Michele Rosier, Man Ray, Geer van Velde, Zao, Soulages, Max, (Jean) Riopelle, "Stella," and C. I. Roy. Vera Nabokov sent her regrets and her husband's, saying that he had too much work to finish before going away for the summer. She expressed "enormous pleasure" that ST had flown overnight on March 12 to Montreux to see them. A copy of his bill from the Montreux-Palace Hotel and her letter are in YCAL, Box 15.

"I never fitted": SS, diary, 1987, YCAL, Box 111.

Afterward, Saul went on alone: Travel receipts are in YCAL, Box 15.

Sigrid was mostly on her own: On May 23, SS wrote to ST from Trier, calling her visit "a nightmare" and "brooding about what next"; YCAL, Box 15.

"like an exam in a French Lycee": ST to Aime Maeght, August 5, 1966; ST to Aime Maeght, November 15, 1966; copies of both in SSF. My translation, with a.s.sistance from Mary Lawrence Test, Myrna Bell Rochester, and Catherine Portuges.

The medal was conferred: ST to Aime Maeght, October 22, 1966, YCAL, Box 22. A reception was given for ST on September 29, 1966.

"another medal of honor": Vogue, January 1, 1967, p. 136.

"in that state of trance": ST to AB, October 23, 1966, SSF.

"My fee today": ST, telegram to "Mr. Adams," director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, June 14, 1966, YCAL, Box 15.

"I sold eighty pictures": ST to Aime Maeght, January 4, 1967, copy in SSF.

"paternal satisfaction": ST to AB, December 10 and December 30, 1967, SSF.

"ready-made for a Saul Steinberg cartoon": Time, April 15, 1966, p. 46.

"an unsettling trip": Pierre Schneider, "Steinberg at the Louvre: A Museum Tour," Art in America, July/August, 1967; reprinted in part in Encounter 30, no. 3 (March 1968), 4854.

Many interviewers came from Europe: Some of the networks that filmed him include Raiuno (Italy), Suddeutscher Rundfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk (Germany), Allan King a.s.sociates (England), and PBS and CBS (USA).

In the United States, in the heyday: Stein, "Straight from the Hand and Mouth of Steinberg," Vogue, January 1, 1967; Hilton Kramer, "The Comic Fantasies of Saul Steinberg," New York Times, December 4, 1966; Rosenberg, "Saul Steinberg's Art World."

"the line philosopher-artist-cartoonist": Mrs. Gerald A. (Edith) Kay to ST, Denver, n.d., YCAL, Box 16.

The Romanian Socialist Republic: YCAL, Box 16. Although ST never joined SACO, he always gave permission for his drawings to be used whenever anyone with whom he served wanted to reproduce them in books or articles. Prominent among them was Admiral Milton E. Miles's history-memoir, A Different Kind of War.

He had never hidden his support for civil rights: The SLC drawing was exhibited at MoMA from October 31 to November 3, 1968, YCAL, Box 32; the CORE doc.u.ments are in YCAL, Box 16. Another group to which he contributed was Artists for SEDF (Scholars.h.i.+p, Education, and Defense fund for Racial Equality); see Robert Rauschenberg to ST, March 1, 1967, YCAL, Box 16. Elodie and Robert Osborn invited him to contribute to send young French filmmakers led by Gerard Calisti to North Vietnam, YCAL, Box 16. A letter from C. Conrad Browne, YCAL, Box 68, thanked him for a contribution of $260 that "helped make possible the termination of charges against the six campers arrested in the 1963 NorthSouth work camp incident."

When he ignored a letter from the Guggenheim Museum: Second Street Workshop Club to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 16; initial Guggenheim invitation, January 27, 1967.

"I go on working": ST to AB, December 30, 1966, SSF.

"Come see me:" ST to Aime Maeght, January 4, 1967, copy in SSF.

He was not as welcoming: SS, nine handwritten looseleaf pages, the first entry dated October 22, 1965, YCAL, Box 68.

By February she was begging: SS to ST, "Feb 18" [1966], YCAL, Box 15; diary entries, YCAL, Boxes 99 and 111; SS to ST, February 8, 1965 to June 14, 1966, YCAL, Box 113.

"It is a complex fate": ST noted this in various YCAL boxes; in YCAL, Box 38, Charles Simic quoted it to him in regard to his own writing. The full quotation is from Henry James's letter to Charles Eliot Norton, February 4, 1872: "It is a complex fate to be an American and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superst.i.tious valuation of Europe."

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: SUCH A DIDACTIC COUNTRY.

"The Was.h.i.+ngton experience is over now": ST to AB, June 2, 1967.

"Ah, America": IF, interview, October 12, 2007.

It was a blessing to be excused: Charles Blitzer to ST, April 13, 1967, YCAL, Box 16.

His stipend for the three months: S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, to ST, February 23, 1967, YCAL, Box 16. In Owen Edwards, "Doodle Dandy," Smithsonian, May 2007, p. 41, ST's stipend was given as $11,000 and his acceptance letter is quoted as saying he would stay "for at least six months or perhaps a whole year." In R & S, p. 48, ST writes: "I was well paid, but I was determined not to save so much as a penny and even to pay a lot out of my own pocket so as not to feel too indebted to the government, and to uphold my honor as a guest of the Smithsonian."

In an article about local celebrities: Sunday "Potomac" supplement, Was.h.i.+ngton Post, January 8, 1967, p. 7. The article featured ST's gla.s.ses with the caption "Artist Saul Steinberg moving to Was.h.i.+ngton as the Smithsonian's Artist in Residence."

As soon as word got out: From the folders of requests in YCAL, Box 16.

"Smithsonian's Steinberg": January, 1967, as quoted in Edwards, "Doodle Dandy," Smithsonian, p. 41.

"an easy interview": Karl E. Meyer, interview, May 27, 2010, in connection with "Steinberg Looks at Was.h.i.+ngton," Was.h.i.+ngton Post, March 15, 1970. Meyer interviewed ST in New York, where he was the paper's correspondent.

"a subject of interest": Mary Krug, managing editor of the Smithsonian Torch, to ST, March 6, 1967, YCAL, Box 16; the article was ent.i.tled "Enigmatic Steinberg Discusses Residency," April 1967, p. 3.

"one of the elite of the elite": ST, diary, YCAL, Box 78; HS, interview, October 11, 2007.

"Norwegian Palace": For a complete account of ST's time in Was.h.i.+ngton, see R & S, pp. 4550. In WMAA, p. 245, ST calls the animals "gorillas."

The library had an excellent collection: ST to AB, March 30, 1967, SSF.

The high living took a toll: ST consulted Dr. Milton Gusack on April 17 and 18, 1967, for a complete "history and physical examination," which included a sigmoidoscopy and a glucose tolerance test. On May 4, Dr. Gusack prescribed a diet that followed an exchange pattern similar to Weight Watchers'. See YCAL, Box 16.

He met so many people: The notebook is in YCAL, Box 16.

"bed w[ith] bells": ST, datebook, March 28, 1967, YCAL, Box 3.

"the famous daughters": "Mr. and Mrs." Saul Steinberg were invited by President and Mrs. Johnson to a White House reception on June 7, 1966; YCAL, Box 69. ST did not attend.

"the most admired diploma": Letter to ST, YCAL, Box 16.

He did not meet any of the Supreme Court justices: ST, datebook, April 18, 1967, YCAL, Box 3; notebook of names, YCAL, Box 16.

The one doc.u.ment that truly spurred his imagination: R & S, p. 49.

he left only thirty-six: The drawings were made into the exhibition catalogue Steinberg at the Smithsonian-The Metamorphosis of an Emblem (Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.: Smithsonian Inst.i.tution Press, 1973), preface by John Hollander.

He included the logo: The dog on a cliff and the India ink bottle are reproduced in Edwards, "Doodle Dandy," pp. 4142; the jug on a table is in WMAA, p. 245.

thirty-foot-long scroll: R & S, p. 49. Approximately 14 feet have survived, catalogued as SSF 7011. SSF also holds SSF 6186, a unique screen print that appears to be some kind of proof, possibly for a fabric design. In an e-mail, May 26, 2010, Sheila Schwartz wrote that to the best of her knowledge, the scroll was never exhibited. In WMAA, ST said that the scroll was "thirty or 40 feet long, a nice way of keeping a diary, ruined naturally by the boredom of a self-imposed commission."

His output was steady: R & S, p. 47, where ST insists he never wore formal dress again.

He had to put the finis.h.i.+ng touches: "Steinberg: The Americans: Aquarelles, Dessins et Collages, 195567," Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels; Museum Boymans-van Beunigen, Rotterdam; Hamburger Kunsthalle.

There was the usual flood of requests: "Steinberg: Dibujos y Acuarelas," Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, 1968; "Saul Steinberg: Watercolors and Drawings," J. L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit; solo exhibitions at Parsons and Janis galleries, all in 1969.

"remote fis.h.i.+ng, lumber, and farm communities": Glynn Ross, Seattle Opera a.s.sociation, to ST, November 21, 1966, YCAL, Box 16. Steinberg made the drawings and directed the painting of the screens but did not work on them himself. When the production ended, in March 1967, the screens were discarded. ST liked the project and wanted to do another, so he proposed Mozart's The Magic Flute for the following season. Glynn Ross wrote again, February 28, 1967, YCAL, Box 16, to say that it would not be staged.

"nothing is ever created": Krug, "Enigmatic Steinberg Discusses Residency." See also S:I, pp. 16667.

Saul arranged for money to be deposited: YCAL, Box 16.

He planned not to return to New York: Letter of protest written by Breiner and Bodan, accountants; directive for ST and HS to appear at District Conference, plus copy of their protest letters; YCAL, Box 16. They won the protest, but the IRS continued to audit ST regularly over the next decade.

"Maybe I should take the hint": SS to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 16.

Unfortunately, when he was there: SS, diary, YCAL, Boxes 109, 111, and 113.

"Why do you behave like a hysterical old woman?": SS to ST, May 9, 1970 [most likely written for herself and not sent], YCAL, Box 112.

"outrage": Joel Smith uses this word in S:I, p. 170.

He agreed with his old friend: Ad Reinhardt, postcard to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 20. The full text is quoted in S:I, p. 245, n. 124.

Among the first to enlist Steinberg: The collage was exhibited during the "Week of Angry Arts," January 29February 4, 1967, YCAL, Box 16.

From then on, Steinberg gave money: A sampling of the exhibitions includes "Protest and Hope: An Exhibition of Contemporary Art," New School Art Center, New York; "Art for Peace," staged by various art galleries in New York and other cities; "Referendum 70," a benefit for antiwar congressional candidates. Scattered throughout the YCAL boxes are flyers, letters, posters, and other materials from various artist groups protesting the war.

Instead of drawing the seals and stamps: ST gave his drawings to William Cypel, of the Union Stamp Works and Printing Company, which was for many years on Broadway but then moved to East 12th Street. Some of the invoices are in YCAL, Box 8. Some of the stamps themselves are in YCAL, Boxes 19 and 20, and they fill YCAL, Boxes 52, 53, and 55.

"to render s.p.a.ce, nature, technology": Glueck, "The Artist Speaks," p. 112.

This posed a problem: Joel Smith discusses this in Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 41.

"the cliche is the expression": "Saul Steinberg Interview," YCAL, Box 67. This unidentified doc.u.ment is misidentified in S:I, p. 245, n. 126, as "June 1, 1968 interview." The correct date is a.s.sumed to be 1986, but the interviewer remains unknown.

"greater social and political": Richard Cohen, "Shawn's Letter from 43rd Street: 'We Are Not as Aloof as We Once Were,' " Women's Wear Daily, July 1, 1968. See also YaG.o.da, "A Time of Tumult: 196271," About Town, pp. 31364.

Many readers thought so: YaG.o.da, About Town, chapter 6, discusses the debate.

"He believed that most of his audience": "Saul Steinberg Interview," YCAL, Box 67.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: LIVING IN THE PAST.

"I work and see few people": ST to AB, February 22, 1968, SSF.

She told him to invite Aldo: ST's datebook for 1968 is full of doodles on newspaper want ads and includes meetings with the realtor Alice Mason; YCAL, Box 3.

When he heard that the eleventh (and top) floor: The lease ran from April 19, 1968, to August 31, 1975. His application to use the premises for a residence in conjunction with an artist's studio was approved on November 4, 1968; YCAL, Box 22. Also, ST to AB, December 8, 1968, SSF.

"Isn't it sumptuous?": Eli Waldron, 1973 essay, YCAL, Box 32.

He got as far as making a list: His work was exhibited in 1968 at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany; Louisiana Museum, Humleback, Denmark; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Irving Galleries, Milwaukee, and was also part of a traveling exhibition that featured the Neuberger Collection, "An American Collection: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture," which began at the Rhode Island School of Design and ended at the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.

"the little house": In a datebook diary, YCAL, Box 108, SS wrote that they moved the little house on May 27, 1968.

"We're going through a nice period": ST to AB, December 8, 1968, SSF.