Saul Steinberg: A Biography Part 42

"What a mistake the book!": ST, diary, April 25July 5, 1991, YCAL, Box 75.

"in the same surprising way": ST to AB, September 29, 1990, SSF.

He was among a select number: Marshall S. Cogan to ST, May 29, 1986, YCAL, Box 99.

Quietly and usually anonymously: Committee to Reelect Holtzman to ST, October 18, 1989, YCAL, Box 94.

Without being asked: Israel Museum, Jerusalem, to ST, thanking him for his contribution, YCAL, Box 94.

The Discovery of America was the most: In the inscribed copy ST presented to Leo Steinberg, he wrote: "For Leo/this uneven book/L'amico Saul ST/Sept 92." The copy is now in SSF.

By the time he collected: "America's Book" is in YCAL, Box 121.

"tougher, grittier, darker": "And Bear in Mind," New York Times Book Review, December 13, 1992; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 29, 1992.

one of the most perceptive: Red Grooms, "The World According to Steinberg," New York Times Book Review, December 6, 1992, p. 7.

"However playful": Donald Kuspit, "Saul Steinberg at Pace Gallery," Art Forum, March 1992, p. 91.

Although Arthur Danto's introduction: In e-mails of August 16 and 18, 2007, Danto wrote that "Discovery was not a great success-DOA: dead on arrival," and that "things cooled between us" after the book was published.

He was famed for writing letters of complaint: ST to AB, June 23, 1992, SSF: "I'm making life difficult for the people at Knopf, corrections, last minute changes, but the worst is over."

to persuade him to leave her: Andrew Wylie, e-mail, March 21, 2010; IF, interview, October 2007; Wendy Weil, interviews, March 22 and 24, 2010.

"way of going always": Wendy Weil, interviews, March 22 and 24, 2010. In her letter of August 24, 1992, she told ST that she did not agree to his request that Andrew Wylie take over the properties she represented, "nor do I agree that he should collect the moneys involved. My office will continue representing them as agreed"; YCAL, Box 38.

"real sorrows": ST to AB, July 3, 1991, SSF.

He could not stand the smell: ST to AB, November 16, 1991, SSF.

Not until the dreaded Christmas holidays: AB, interview, October 2007; HS, interview, October 2007; Ruth Nivola, interview, September 22, 2007.

"Every now and then": ST to AB, December 23, 1991; ST, diary, Friday, May 24, 1991, YCAL, Box 75.

She wanted to know if it was true: PC to ST, February 14, 1984, YCAL, Box 64. In her letter of October 1, 1986, also YCAL, Box 64, PC asks ST if this was the copy signed by Aline Bernstein, given to her by Thomas Wolfe, who met James Joyce on several occasions. Perlman signed it before giving it to ST. ST gave it to PC, saying, "Because you will love it the most." After ST's death PC gave the book to Leo Steinberg, who had read it "about nine different times and in five editions and knew most of it by heart"; PC, e-mail, October 7, 2007. See also "Prudence Crowther on S. J. Perelman," in The Company They Kept: Writers on Unforgettable Friends.h.i.+ps, edited by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein (New York: New York Review Collection, 2006), pp. 17980.

"an invaluable shortcut": "PC on S. J. Perelman," p. 180. In a diary entry for June 4, 1991, ST reminisced about his first days in America: "First thing learn the cliches in order to avoid them (or worse, reinvent them). In his satires (of let's say Hollywood conversations) S. J. Perelman is indispensable as a teacher of pitfalls, common wisecracks, a hint of the fairly high level of popular sophistication."

Saul discovered that he was comfortable: PC to ST, April 18, 1997, YCAL, Box 38; PC e-mail to DB, October 7, 2007, mss. comment, 2011.

Saul discovered that he was comfortable: PC, e-mail, October 7, 2007; PC, mss. comment, 2011.

When he began to see her more frequently: ST to AB, June 17, 1996; PC, e-mail to DB, December 6, 2010.

Saul attempted to work out: The account that follows is from ST, diary, June 2, 1991, YCAL, Box 75. HS recounted this conversation in much the same language as that ST used in the diary and verified that the "P" he referred to was Prudence Crowther; telephone conversation October 23, 2007.

"the creme de la creme": ST to AB, November 29, 1991, SSF.

"to universal surpise": ST to AB, January 7, 1992, SSF; reproduced on p. 193 in Discovery of America.

It was one of the drawings: According to SSF, July 2011, these covers were printed not from original drawings but from color photocopies in TNY files. It appears that ST was publis.h.i.+ng some things during Gottlieb's tenure-for example, the three covers plus the April 30, 1990, "Ca.n.a.l Street" drawing in conjunction with IF's book of the same name.

After that, whenever he felt he had something: The covers appeared on January 13, June 8, September 7, and November 30, 1992; May 17, 1993, and February 28, April 25, and October 10, 1994; all are reproduced in Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 138.

Tina Brown was so intent: Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 46.

"such absurd one-dimensional publicity": In ST to AB, December 12, 1992, ST writes that the four covers had already appeared in "that book," in which they had been "used by those thieves with more impunity than usual." The book was Seasons at The New Yorker: Six Decades of Cover Art, reprinted by the National Academy of Design, 1990. Tina Brown to ST, March 12, 1994, YCAL, Box 39.

When he had drawings he wanted to submit: For a description of how they worked, see Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 47.

"Whenever and wherever": William Shawn to ST, December 8, 1992, YCAL, Box 32. For Shawn's misdating, see also ST to AB, December 12, 1992.

He had to stop playing this mental game: ST, diary, Thursday, May 30, 1991, YCAL, Box 75.

"walking for two hours": ST, diary, June 14, 1991, YCAL, Box 75.

While he was there, she went: SS's medical records regarding the depression and suicide attempt are in YCAL, Box 110. They give June 27, 1992, as the date she sought help for "acute depression," and July 13 as the date she took an overdose of sleeping pills. In YCAL, Box 34, letter from SS to ST, December 27, 1992, she writes that "exactly six months ago, June 27" was the day she made the suicide attempt.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: AFFIRMATION OF THINGS AS THEY ARE.

"Something else, too, came to me": C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Vintage, 1989), pp. 29697. ST photocopied these pages and highlighted the paragraph with the pa.s.sage quoted above; YCAL, Box 38.

Steinberg found Sigrid: The account that follows is from a diary entry by SS, mistakenly dated June 26, 1992, as this event did not happen until July 13, according to the admission date on the records of Southampton Hospital; YCAL, Box 110.

"waking with his name": Ibid. The account that follows is based on medical doc.u.ments in YCAL, Boxes 34, 38, 58, 110, 111, and 112, and interviews, conversations, and e-mails with (among others) PC, IF, HS, Claire Nivola, and Vita Peterson.

"for doing this awful thing": SS, suicide note mistakenly dated June 27, 1992, YCAL, Box 110.

"It's rather nice": SS to ST, Friday, July 17, 1992, YCAL, Box 111.

Once back in the city: SS, living will dated August 18, 1992, YCAL, Box 112. It replaced a letter written July 26, 1989, YCAL, Box 110, to her lawyer, Barry Kaplan, in which SS wrote that she did not know the rules of New York State but she did not want life support: "I want to be put out of my misery quickly. Could you please add this to my will."

She settled into her apartment: SS, diary writings in YCAL, Boxes 110 and 111, and letter to ST from Southampton Hospital, July 17, 1992, also YCAL, Box 110.

This worried Evelyn Hofer: Evelyn Hofer to ST, n.d., 1996, written shortly after SS's suicide, YCAL, Box 58.

In the letter she told Glimcher: SS to Arne Glimcher (copy to ST), April 7, 1992, YCAL, Box 38.

He was shocked and in despair: Doc.u.ments pertaining to the sale are in YCAL, Box 112.

She sent him color photocopies: The drawings were of the h.e.l.l Gate Bridge and some New York taxis; they and her note are in YCAL, Box 124. Sometime later, she sold a de Kooning drawing, but the date and the provenance are not clear. She alludes to this obliquely in diary writings in YCAL, Box 108.

"From Steinberg: $30,000": SS, a.s.sorted papers in YCAL, Box 110.

"depression and recent hypo/manic episode": SS, file card dated May 3, but probably misdated as there are other credit card listings with later dates in the name of "Mrs. Steinberg," YCAL, Box 110. Other bills and order forms are in YCAL, Boxes 69 and 109.

"reflected the entire drama": ST to AB, July 31, 1992, SSF. Dr. Morton Fisch was attached to Lenox Hill Hospital and had been ST's internist for more than twenty years. Later ST consulted Dr. Jeffrey Tepler, to whom he was referred by William Gaddis. Medical information from PC, e-mail, December 6, 2010.

"powerful emotions": ST to AB, July 31, 1992, SSF.

"n.o.body dies of heartbreak": ST, undated jotting in a small notebook he kept from April to May 1993, YCAL, Box 95.

"I am the same age as Lincoln": One of the obituaries she clipped was of Pierre Beregovy, prime minister of France, May 9, 1993; from her collection of suicides in YCAL, Box 110.

She continued to see Dr. Wanner: In an e-mail of November 13, 2007, Dr. Wanner, a Jungian a.n.a.lyst, said he had promised SS's family and her lawyer not to divulge information. I regret that all information about SS's treatment is one-sided, as it comes from her, ST, their friends and a.s.sociates, and other information in the YCAL boxes.

She photocopied many pages: C. G. Jung to "Anonymous," March 9, 1959, in Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, eds., C. G. Jung: Letters, Vol. 2, 19511961 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1953), p. 492. SS also read Anthony Stevens's and Joseph Campbell's writings but did not specify which. Photocopied pages in YCAL, Box 38; other information from YCAL, Box 110.

"how extraordinary": SS to ST, December 27, 1992, YCAL, Box 34.

"Everything is going so well": SS, writing on a copy of two printings of the name "Steinberg" in bold black type, YCAL, Box 38.

She sent another worrisome signal: The letter is Joseph J. Schildkraut, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, to the New York Times, Sunday, March 27, 1994, copy in YCAL, Box 110.

"constantly worried": ST to AB, August 26, 1992, SSF.

"removed from life": ST to AB, August 2, 1992, SSF.

He saw the books she left lying around: Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 29697. ST's photocopies are in YCAL, Box 38.

As Steinberg read Jung's life story: Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 28998; see also D. Bair, Jung: A Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 2003), chapter 32, pp. 496502.

Jung never became one of the philosophers: HS, telephone conversation, October 23, 2007, said she did not remember ST ever introducing Jung's name into conversation. She "may have done, once or twice," but not because she found his writings personally influential. There is no reference to Jung in any of ST's correspondence with AB, nor in any of ST's diary writings.

"one does not meddle": Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 297.

"I can't. It's my magazine": ST to AB, January 9, 1993, SSF.

Miles wrote that the magazine: Jack Miles, "What Has Happened to The New Yorker?" Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 25, 1993, p. 16.

Steinberg put this piece into his: YCAL, Box 121.

"fine wine in an ugly": ST to AB, July 1, 1993, SSF.

"he's one of those people": ST to AB, January 28, 1993, SSF.

"remembers everything about the earlier days": ST to AB, April 16, 1993, SSF. On April 26, 1993, ST wrote that he had "done 4 or 5 Simics." ST told Simic that "you look like a good drawing." To AB, he wrote: "In reality, his eyes appear to have been painted on his gla.s.ses, like a sign at the oculist's." On September 6, 1993, YCAL, Box 87, he wrote to tell Simic he was sending one of his portraits, "pencil on wood ... drawing on wood is like on skin, a tattoo. Lumber stays alive a long time."

Playing with portraits and blocks of wood: ST to Charles Simic, September 6, 1993, YCAL, Box 87.

"young and well-nourished son": ST to AB, March 9, 1993, SSF.

"at the home of his publisher": ST to AB, April 11, 1993, SSF.

Eco's American editor: Drenka Willen, interview, May 13, 2008.

He especially liked the way: ST to AB, February 15, 1993, SSF.

"loyal love for the man": ST's undated draft of the letter he eventually sent is in YCAL, Box 87; s.h.i.+rley Hazzard's reply is dated December 19, 1994, also YCAL, Box 87.

"an experiment": PC, e-mail, December 14, 2010.

"hidden surprises": ST to AB, December 7, 1992, SSF.

"suspicious": ST to AB, April 26, 1993, SSF.

"a discovery": ST to AB, July 1, 1993, SSF.

For the next several years, Steinberg sent: ST to AB, January 7, 1992; correspondence between ST and Munro, YCAL, Boxes 58, 65, and 75. On February 27, 1994, YCAL, Box 65, she wrote that she would not send her photo in exchange for the one that he sent her but would send a story instead, which would not be published anywhere but for a Canadian fund-raiser.

Brian Boyd's biography: ST to AB, January 14 and 25, 1992, SSF.

"rivermaid's father": Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister (New York: Library of America, 1996), p. 168.

This time, however, he wanted to be: ST, notebook, n.d., AprilMay 1993, and small spiral notebook, May 1993, both YCAL, Box 95. In the published Italian edition of the ST/AB letters, p. 230, AB mistakenly inserts the word "uberlingen" after the "Buchinger Clinic."

"blessed with invisibility": ST to AB, Juy 20, 1993, SSF.

The next day he and Dana: ST to AB, May 24, 1993, SSF.

"the rich live badly": ST, undated jotting in AprilMay 1993 notebook, YCAL, Box 95.

"miserable black slime": ST to AB, May 24, 1993, SSF.

"the companions.h.i.+p of one's selves": ST to AB, June 13, 1993, SSF.

Hedda sent a note: HS to ST, YCAL, Box 22; HS, telephone conversation, October 23, 2007. In a letter to Saul Bellow, SS writes that ST's "private birthday is on June 27." His letter is dated June 1, 1987, and hers is a draft of her reply, YCAL, Box 110.

"paradise": ST to AB, July 31, 1993, SSF.

"so worried and caring": HS, interview, October 24, 1907.

"the other important thing": ST to AB, August 29, 1993, SSF.

"added intensity": ST to AB, September 18, 1993, SSF.

"My happy memory of St. Barth": ST to AB, March 12, 1994, SSF.

"understand[ing] drawing": ST to AB, March 4, 1994, SSF.

"Of course Tina wants it for the noise": ST to Saul Bellow, Friday, February 11, 1994, YCAL, Box 87.