Saul Steinberg: A Biography

by Deirdre Bair

  “toward streamlined bad taste”: ST to AB, January 26, 1946, SSF.

  Drawing for it made him feel: “The Rose Is from the Cabbage Family” and “Drawings for The New Yorker,” R & S Outtakes, YCAL, Box 38, and SSF.

  “the absence of Fascism”: ST to AB, January 26, 1946, SSF.

  “a clever pirate”: ST to AB, November 18 and 23, 1945, SSF.

  “better than ever”: ST to AB, June 15, 1946, SSF.

  Joseph Mitchell’s writing: ST to AB, January 26, 1946, SSF.

  Most of all when he read: ST to AB, April 29, 1946, SSF.

  “an old woman being decapitated”: Ibid.

  In June, while spending the summer: ST to Bianca Lattuada, June 8, 1946, and ST to AB, June 15, 1946, SSF.

  These were the years when every glittering name: ST’s calendars, datebooks, and address book are all in YCAL, Box 3.

  a habitué at Del Pezzo: Belinda Rathbone, Walker Evans: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), p. 228.

  He enjoyed conversations: ST shared Evans’s vision of postcards as “lyric documentaries.” In YCAL, Box 75, diary entry for May 29, 1991, after seeing Evans’s biographer, Belinda Rathbone, ST wrote of “postcards (love of) my connection with W.E. Postcards are haikus of geography.” See also Roberta Smith, “Main Street Postcards as Muse,” New York Times, February 6, 2009, p. C29.

  Steinberg was entranced with the laconic: HS, interview, September 9, 2007; “The Rose Is from the Cabbage Family,” R & S Outtakes, YCAL, Box 38, and SSF. ST described Giacometti as “a dear friend whom I always enjoyed talking to. Until the end, he remained what I would call adolescent, meaning curious, free and easy.”

  “Things never clicked for us with them”: HS, interview, September 9, 2007.

  “the Jews had survived”: “The Rose Is from the Cabbage Family,” “Sartre” [AB #6], R & S Outtakes.

  When they saw each other: HS, interview, September 9, 2007.

  she should have snubbed Sartre: ST to HS, n.d., AAA.

  “she figured it out”: ST to AB, August 22, 1946, SSF.

  They resumed their affair: HS, interview, July 15, 2007.

  “Goring and company”: ST to AB, August 22, 1946, SSF.

  Among them were John Stanton: John Stanton to Simon Michael Bessie, January 20, 1955; forwarded by Bessie to ST, now in YCAL, Box 7, “Correspondence 1955.”

  Otherwise, everything he saw: ST to AB, August 22, 1946, SSF.

  “I was in Nuremberg”: ST to M & R Steinberg, November 21, 1946, Romanian letters, SSF.

  “pointless misery and destruction”: ST to AB, September 26, 1946, SSF.

  They had been in Europe for six months: ST to AB, January 15, 1947, SSF.

  It was Aldo’s wife: HS, interview, July 15, 2007. She added, “There were often substantial sums of money given on a fairly regular basis, whenever Aldo was in a spot of difficulty.” Letters throughout various boxes at YCAL bear out her contention. When I asked directly about “the intensity of the friendship and the possibility of homosexuality” between AB and ST, HS said, “I am too discreet to go any further.” In my research, I found no evidence that it was anything other than a close friendship.

  He was a guest at the elegant Gramercy Park mansion: Benjamin Sonnenberg, e‑mail to DB, November 2, 2007. At the time, ST was making a life drawing of Sonnenberg, Sr., for Geoffrey Hellman’s TNY profile, which eventually appeared on April 8, 1950, and that and others are probably those found in SSF 5154. Sonnenberg Jr. added, “When [ST] was doing my picture in January 1991, he showed me the several life sketches of my father which he’d done in preparation for the New Yorker caricature. They were altogether naturalistic and they showed my father as humane, approachable, even charming, which he certainly could be. By contrast, the New Yorker drawing shows a man totally preoccupied with his objects, his clothing, his public presentation.”

  At their first meeting they discussed: One drawing of a man holding his detached nose appears in The Inspector; a series of drawings featuring the nose in various manifestations is in Le Masque, both unpaginated; a brown-paper-bag figure holding a detached nose is on the 1969 poster ST created for the Spoleto Festival at the request of his friend Priscilla Morgan.

  “wonderful Saul Steinberg”: Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 511–12. For a special issue of TriQuarterly, April 1969, celebrating Nabokov’s seventieth birthday, ST contributed a diploma, p. 332.

  “much bigger and more serious”: ST to AB, August 4, 1947, SSF.

  He made a preliminary visit: ST, datebook for 1946, YCAL, Box 3; HS, interview, March 29, 2007, said, “It was no picnic to drive that big thing; it was hard work.”

  Aldo declined: ST to AB, May 29, 1947. When finished, the mural was 80 feet long.

  The industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss: The murals were featured in an article in Interiors, December 1948. A caption read: “Reproduced on Varlar, a formidable product developed by the United Wallpaper company, the murals will undoubtedly outlast the ships, come sea, lipstick, or alcohol,” which they did. ST created murals for four ships which, some years later, were sold by American Export Lines. Henry Dreyfuss and ST were both members of the Century Assocation, and Dreyfuss gave the club the original book that contained a page about ST’s murals plus the separate blueprints pertaining to them. In 2007, when the Century was deaccessioning the materials, they were given to me, and I in turn gave them to SSF. Serendipitiously, at the same time, one of the ships was scuttled outside Galveston, Texas, where it was subsequently used as a training facility for the Texas Maritime Academy. The mural was still intact as of 2012.

  “The trouble is that these things”: ST to AB, August 4, 1947.

  As was usual with Steinberg, however: ST to AB, December 5, 1947,

  the Russians were threatening to close: ST to AB, December 5, 1947, and February 24, 1948; Lica Roman to ST, February 19, 1950, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 56, copy in SSF.

  He was in such a bad mood: ST to HS, partial letter, n.d. but internal evidence suggests end of 1947 or January 1948, AAA.

  He told Aldo that it was no small matter: ST to AB, February 24, 1948. For a time there was the possibility that one of ST’s aunts and her son might go with Moritz and Rosa, but in the end they decided to go to Israel instead.

  “always looked for ways to escape”: ST to AB, December 17, 1955, after spending Christmas with Sandy and Louisa Calder at their home in Roxbury, Connecticut.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SLAVING AWAY WITH PLEASURE

  “To work, I must isolate myself”: “Berenson,” R & S Outtakes.

  He wanted to join her in France: ST makes references to his refusal to fly throughout undated 1948 letters to HS, AAA. He says he will do so only if he can’t get ship reservations. In ST to HS, April 25, 1949, he chastises HS for flying to Paris via London on Pan American Airlines: “I won’t let you fly again. I worry too much.”

  At night the building was full of noises: ST to HS, February 6, 9, 13, 14, 17, 24, 28, and 29, 1948, AAA.

  “highly interesting, occasionally wonderful”: HS, interview, March 29, 2007.

  his only nod to discretion: Some examples from YCAL, Box 2, 1948: “D” in a circle with “10–11”; “D 10”; “D 10:30.”

  “In a way, sex was his life”: HS, interview, April 18, 2007.

  Worried that she might retaliate: ST to HS, February 9, 1948, AAA.

  He went out almost every night: To write about Richard Lindner, I have consulted the following sources: Dore Ashton, Richard Lindner (New York: Abrams, 1969); Matthew Baigell, “Richard Lindner,” Dictionary of American Art (New York: Harper & Row, 1979); Klaus D. Bode, ed., Richard Lindner: Paintings, Works on Paper, Graphic (Nuremberg: Bode Galerie/Edition GmbH, 2001); Lee Hall, Betty Parsons: Artist, Dealer, Collector (New York: Abrams, 1991); S:I. Interviews with HS, Priscilla Morgan, and Dore Ashton were very useful.

  Within minutes: ST, draft of his 1978 “Tribute to Richard Lindner,” YCAL, Box
75.

  In 1953 he put his friends: “The Meeting,” oil on canvas, 60 in. x 6 ft. (152.4 x 182.9 cm). MoMA, anonymous gift.

  “proto-pop [art] color sense”: Smith, in S:I, p. 35 and p. 238, n. 63, writes that Lindner “got an early jump on Pop Art in America by seeing that color in America … had nothing to do with nature; its keynotes were fresh paint and packaging.” Betty Parsons, quoted in Hall, Betty Parsons, p. 110, differed: “[Lindner] was an original … Later they said he was the first Pop artist. He wasn’t that either but that helped sell his paintings … Later, when everybody got interested in Pop art, they thought Lindner was a Pop artist and then he sold very well and got a lot of attention.”

  Saul was a dedicated poker player: Sometime in the late 1940s, ST began to make drawings on musical notation paper, one of which appeared on Schneider’s LP album. They made their first gallery appearance in the 1952 Parsons/Janis dual exhibitions.

  he had just done a series of drawings: ST to HS, February 17, 1948, AAA. “A pity the Vogue drawings didn’t come out well.”

  “something corny”: ST to HS, February 29, 1948. Although he did a number of covers on political themes in later years, this one was not accepted.

  “forced by necessities”: ST to HS, undated, internal evidence suggests Spring 1948, AAA.

  He was pleased when he taught himself: ST to HS, February 14, 1948, and undated “Sunday,” AAA.

  “sad bunch of snobs”: ST to HS, February 29 and March 1, 1948, AAA.

  Because his teeth gave him his worst “real hell”: ST to HS, n.d. but evidence suggests the end of April 1948.

  Steinberg took Constantino Nivola: For a capsule description of the mural’s history and provenance, see S:I, p. 239, n. 83. See also YCAL, Box 57, Folders 1947 and 1948; ST to AB, August 4, 1947, and February 24, 1948.

  “silence from the upper classes”: ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests March–April 1948.

  When Steinberg compared the murals for the ships: ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests mid-April 1948, AAA.

  Monroe Wheeler invited him: Lynes wrote “A Man Called Steinberg” for Harper’s Magazine, 1946, and it was the beginning of a long and close friendship. Copy in YCAL, Box 62, folder “Clippings 1946.” Lynes did needlepoint and covered a chair with a canvas ST designed for him. His brother was the photographer George Platt Lynes, who took photos of ST and HS.

  After a dinner at Ben Baldwin’s: ST knew Ben Baldwin from the navy. Baldwin was now an interior architect with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was influential in the Cincinnati murals commission. For a capsule description of the friendship and professional relationship, see S:I, p. 239, n. 83.

  “Very important,” Saul declared: ST wrote MoMA in the letter, but he probably mistook it for the Whitney Museum, where HS was included in the “Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting,” December 16, 1949–February 5, 1950. Eckhardt, Uninterrupted Flux, pp. 120–21, lists this show and two others for 1949: “The 21st Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (March 27–May 8),” and “Painting in the United States, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (October 13–December 11).”

  He told Hedda he could not bear: ST to HS, “Wednesday,” internal evidence suggests late April 1948, AAA.

  “on the biggest and noisiest honeymoon”: ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests early May 1948, AAA.

  Saul told her not to worry: ST to HS, “Wednesday” to “Dear Rabbit,” n.d. but internal evidence suggests early May 1948, AAA.

  “a lot of bad art”: ST to AB, June 10, 1948, Paris. SSF.

  Saul and Hedda started out: AB was working on Lattuada’s film Il Mulino del Po. A photo of ST and AB is in Lettere, p. 31, captioned “ST e AB al cantiere del ‘Mulino del Po,’ a Mantova.” Also ST to AB, June 10, 1948, and note, SSF.

  “indifferent and stupid”: ST to AB, Biarritz, July 28, 1948, SSF.

  “big Romanian cloud”: ST to HS, February 28, 1948, AAA.

  “it’s no small matter” ST to AB, New York, February 24, 1948, SSF. His parents were two; Lica and her husband and son made five; he was including two of his Aunt Sali’s children but they ultimately went to Israel. Initially, ST was responsible only for his parents; although he supported his sister and her family as much as he could, he did not become totally responsible for them until they were permitted to leave in 1957.

  Still, it got so that he hated: ST to HS, February 28, 1948, AAA.

  “ate bad meals”: ST to AB, New York, October 13, 1948, SSF. The vulgar phrase is more correctly translated as “enough of playing the faggot,” but SSF prefers the more refined alternative translation offered by James Marcus, “enough fooling around.”

  He wanted to put off: ST to AB, December 27, 1948.

  “slaving away at it”: Ibid. From 1949 until the mid-1950s he produced designs for Patterson, and later Stehli and Greef, on a fee-plus-royalty basis, which earned him significant sums of money. Some of the designs were titled “Views of Paris,” “Paris Opera,” “Gendarmes,” “Trains,” and “Cowboys.” Examples are in S:I, pp. 44–45.

  He began the new year: ST to AB, February 4, 1949, SSF.

  the first large-scale work: See S:I, 1949 Chronology, p. 255 and p. 239, n. 86. In the end, ST made twenty-four drawings, which are now in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA); the mural was destroyed when the DIA show closed.

  “the best design (in their opinion)”: ST to AB, June 1, 1949, SSF.

  Girard was sorry to relay: Alexander Girard to ST, November 5, 1951, YCAL, Box 56, “Correspondence from 1950.”

  “bunch of cartoons”: ST to AB, December 27, 1948.

  work was “therapeutic”: ST to AB, December 27, 1948, SSF.

  For a short time he liked: ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests early spring 1949, AAA.

  “an old and honored title”: ST to AB, June 1, 1949, SSF.

  the reception … was tepid: Wendy Weil, ST’s literary agent, provided information about the sales of his books in interviews and conversations, March 22 and 24, 2010.

  He complained of having to work: ST to HS, May 20, 1949, AAA.

  Miss Elinor didn’t last long: To the end of his life, ST kept voluminous folders filled with letters from individuals or firms who wanted to commission a project imploring him to respond to the initial request. He may have done so on the telephone, but there is no written record that he ever did. These folders are scattered throughout the YCAL boxes.

  Steinberg thought Rogers was one of the tourists: ST to HS, April 28 [1949], AAA.

  “I made up my mind”: ST to HS, May 20, 1949, AAA.

  A flurry of telegrams ensued: ST to AB, November 9, 1948. A series of cryptic telegrams relating to the pregnancy is in ST to HS, May 20 through 31, 1949, AAA. Internal evidence in undated letters in ST to HS, AAA, are most likely June 1949.

  It was unpoken between them: Information that follows is from interviews and conversations with HS, particularly October 11, 2007.

  “he works three hours a week”: ST to AB, September 26, 1949, SSF.

  Saul’s incomprehension: Ruth Nivola, interview, September 22, 2007; Claire Nivola, interview, July 2, 2008.

  “I brace myself”: ST to HS, May 31, 1949, AAA.

  “If it were not for the parents”: ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests June 2, 1949, AAA.

  “We really have to move to the country”: ST to HS, “Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend,” 1949, AAA.

  their “really beautiful” daughter: ST to HS, “Sunday night,” n.d. but internal evidence suggests mid-June 1949, AAA.

  In a spurt of energy: YCAL, Box 15, “Correspondence with Lindey” contains detailed information and contracts.

  “very trying evening”: ST to HS, “Monday evening” and “Thursday,” n.d. but internal evidence suggests mid-June 1949, AAA.

  “drinking lightly”: ST to HS, “Friday,” n.d. but internal evidence suggests end of June 1949, A
AA.

  “an architect’s own dream house”: ST to HS, “Monday” and “Wednesday,” June 1949, AAA.

  “help their ignorant editors”: ST to HS, undated letters, probably June–July 1949, AAA.

  They entertained him: ST to HS, “Monday morning after a Friday 13th,” June 1949, AAA.

  “an architect called Saarinen”: Eero Saarinen was then the director of the Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and at the beginning of his career as one of the twentieth century’s most renowned architects.

  “most convincing letters”: ST to HS, “Saturday night,” probably late June 1949, AAA.

  It was his introduction: For many years ST contributed money and original artwork to the synagogue in Trumbull, Connecticut, one of the smallest and most local.

  “it’s too late now”: ST to HS, “Saturday night,” June 2949, AAA. The book was Israel Without Tears (New York: Current Books, 1950). ST designed the endpapers as well as the jacket cover.

  He was to sail on the Queen Mary: Information that follows, until noted otherwise, is from ST to HS, undated letters whose internal evidence suggests June 15–22, 1949, AAA.

  Steinberg pulled out all his drawings: ST to HS, “Thursday,” probably between June 15 and June 18, 1949, AAA.

  He liked de Kooning: ST to AB, December 7, 1949, SSF.

  As the date to sail approached: At the cat’s feeding time, ST always cut a circle in a paper napkin and put it over the cat’s head to serve as a bib. Lindner always did the same when he kept it. Priscilla Morgan, interviews and conversations, 2010 and 2011.

  Russell Lynes gave a small dinner: When ST gave Lynes a drawing of a naked woman similar to the one he made for Cartier-Bresson’s bathtub and the Eameses’ chair, Lynes reproduced it in needlepoint. The chair is in Lynes’s New York townhouse, where his son, George Lynes, now lives with his family.

  To his great surprise (and delight): In his appointment book for 1949, YCAL, Box 3, Folder 2: 1949, he made a list of all the images he wanted to use for the mural, many of which never made it into the final version. The description that follows is from ST to HS, dated “Wed.,” but probably before June 15, 1949, AAA, when he sent Girard the first group of final drawings.