Saul Steinberg: A Biography
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“avoid or postpone”: ST to AB, New York, December 30 [1957], SSF.
He was “enjoying it a lot” Ruth Nivola confused Claire’s book with the one ST made for her son, Pietro.
He reserved the letter E: I am grateful to Claire Nivola for allowing me to see the ABCedarian, which is in her private collection of works by ST.
“yanked her out of Cornell”: Alexander Stille, interview, January 6, 2009. Stille refers to the New Bauhaus School funded by Walter Paepcke that lasted one year, 1937–38, after which it became first the School of Design (1939) and then the Institute of Design (1944).
Their friends tried not to notice: Priscilla Morgan remembered such parties at the Weiner house and the Betty Parsons Gallery, to name just two. She recalled conversations with René Bouché and Richard Lindner when they all expressed sadness over HS’s determined stoicism and ST’s rude disregard for her feelings.
“the terror that grips the shoulders”: ST wrote this on “Sunday, May 19, 1991,” YCAL, Box 75, after a visit to HS. He said she had it “during my tenure,” which was the expression he used for the years they lived together as a married couple.
The news that the Roman family: Lica Roman wrote a memoir of the years when she and her family were trying to leave Romania. SSF has prepared an English translation, unpublished as of 2011.
“managed to slip out”: Alexander Lindey to ST, February 14, 1957, YCAL, Box 7.
“They leave on September 1st”: M & R Steinberg to ST, August 26, 1957, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
“through an exchange of favors”: ST to HS, September 8, 1957, AAA.
In Nice, his parents were “frantic”: Much of this correspondence, dated September 3 through 27, is in Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
“a duty, a responsibility”: ST to AB, October 2 [1957], SSF.
He was in New York: Moritz Steinberg to HS and ST, September 25, 1957, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
“very cute”: Rosa Steinberg to HS, September 22, 1957, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
“the different generations”: Lica and Ilie (Rica) Roman to ST, October 9, 1957, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
On their own they made: Lica Roman to ST, November 1957, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
They dutifully began the process: Ilie and Lica Roman to ST, Nice, October 9, 1957, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.
“a good act as an artist”: ST to AB, December 3 [1957], SSF.
At the same time, more letters: “Sali” [Marcovici] to ST, n.d.; Jacques Ghelber to ST, Tel Aviv, November 18, 1957; both Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8; Ada Ongari to ST, n.d., YCAL.
“I’m in trouble”: ST to AB, January 20 [1958].
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: A BITING SATIRE OF AMERICAN LIFE
“If my life, or yours or others”: ST to AB, December 20, 1957.
Rudofsky was the chief designer: Rudofsky was in charge of the interior design and installation of exhibitions for Peter G. Harnden Associates. Correspondence about the mural between ST and BR is in YCAL, Box 8.
his charge was to tell: Felicity D. Scott, “An Eye for Modern Architecture,” in Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky: Life as a Voyage (Basel: Birkhauser, 2007), p. 200.
“pricks our complacency”: Ibid., p. 194.
President Eisenhower was so disturbed: Ibid., p. 203; F. D. Scott, “Encounters with the Face of America,” in Architecture and the Sciences: Exchanging Metaphors, ed. Antoine Picon and Alessandra Ponte (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003), pp. 256–91.
Before he began to arrange: “Statement for Murals for Brussels World’s Fair,” YCAL, Box 6.
he had worked on perfecting: ST described the technique in his letters to HS, “Tuesday 24 August” [1954] and n.d. (probably late August 1954), both AAA.
“Bernard full of politics”: ST to HS, March 15, 1958, AAA. For gossip, intrigues, and actual details about the murals, see also B. Rudofsky to ST, January 13 and March 1, 1958, and Peter G. Harndon to ST, March 14, 1958, all in YCAL, Box 8.
“beautiful, like enamel”: ST to HS, March 15 through April 12, 1958, AAA.
In fact, his mural was the greatest: Some of the many reviews include “ST at Brussels,” Newsweek International Edition, April 28, 1958, p. 39; “Americans at Brussels: Soft Sell, Rage & Controversy,” Time, June 16, 1958, pp. 70–75.
“to show how we really”: New York Herald Tribune, April 10, 1958.
“a biting satire”: Pierre Schneider, partial clipping in YCAL, Box 62, folder “Brussels Fair Reviews.”
“ugly dark blue”: ST to HS, “Sunday on Pont royal p.m. April 18, 1958,” AAA.
He urged Hedda not to doubt: HS was still deeply involved in the friendship with the Stilles, and in an undated letter, YCAL, microfilm letters, she tells ST that “Mischa [as they called Ugo] and Elizabeth” took her to “ [Dwight] McDonalds after dinner.”
“Decisions, decisions”: HS to ST, n.d. but just prior to the one quoted above, YCAL, microfilm letters.
He refused an invitation to dinner: Correspondence in YCAL, Box 8.
“suggestions to reconsider”: Correspondence concerning this book is dated April 26, 27, 28, and 30, 1959, and March 25, 1959, YCAL, Box 6.
The project dragged on: D. F. Bradley to R. Delpire, April 39, 1959, YCAL, Box 6.
An unhappy resolution occurred: HS sent a telegram to ST, April 15, 1958, telling him that William Shawn “wants many drawings of Brussels Fair for possibly several double spreads.” On May 11, 1958, she sent ST an undated letter telling him that Shawn refused them all. Apparently, he did not think them suitable for the magazine. YCAL, Box 8.
“I’d be horrible”: ST to HS, “Genova April 27” [1958], AAA.
Then he drove on to Rome: ST received $500 for the front curtain, and Leland Hayward paid him $200 in royalties for the Robbins ballets performed at the Alvin Theater in New York. Correspondence concerning the 1958 Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto, is in YCAL, Box 6.
They invited him to name any price: Letter from Gabor Associates of I. M. Pei, on behalf of “Mr. Fassio,” owner of the company, YCAL, Box 6. Carlo Luigi Daneri was the architect and Gigi Fornasetti was the interior designer.
“affamato artista e la sua pottente giaguar”: ST to HS, Spoleto, May 3, 1958, AAA.
“ horror of the brutality”: ST to HS, Grande Albergo Minerva, Rome, n.d. but most likely late April–early May 1958, AAA.
Although he remained close: His date and address books in YCAL, Box 3, attest to his meetings with those named in the text and many others.
It was a shock to read: Originally titled Quer Pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana. ST to HS, “Sunday 11” internal evidence suggests May 1958, AAA. Also ST to AB, June 1, 1958: “The idea of using dialogue to describe a person—not in the dialogue—is brilliant.” ST felt several empathies for Gadda: both were Politecnico graduates, but Gadda had been in engineering; Both considered themselves “intensely Milanese,” and Gadda’s innovative use of language in literature had parallels with ST’s in art.
“undesired role”: ST to AB, June 1, 1958, SSF.
In his influential 1915 essay: Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, The Rise of Cubism (New York: Wittenborn, Schultz, 1949), pp. 5–16; originally published as Der Weg zum Kubismus (Munich: Delphin, 1920).
Earlier in 1958: HSto ST, n.d. but internal evidence suggests early 1958, YCAL, microfilm letters.
Picasso gave the paper: ST merely mentions that he called on Picasso in ST to AB, June 1, 1958, SSF. In a note to the letter, AB writes: “The result, logically, was not an exceptional drawing but merely a pleasant souvenir of the meeting, which since it was done with a ballpoint pen, ST kept wrapped in dark paper so that it would not fade with the passage of time. To ST, it signified above all that on that day Picasso had considered him his peer.” SSF, in a comment to this note, said that AB is mistaken about the ballpoint pen: that one of the drawings was done in pencil, the other in colored crayons; also that ST did not keep it wrapped but framed the two sheets together. One is curr
ently at YCAL, the other is owned by Stéphane Roman; interviews, January 11 and 12, 2008. See also S: I, cat. 69, p. 192. On p. 246, n. 155, Joel Smith writes that cadavre exquis works make their earliest appearance in the brochure for ST’s 1966 exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery and are also reproduced in WMAA, p. 193. ST played the conventional version of cadavre exquis with Picasso on May 16, 1958. One of the drawings was most recently shown at the Musée Tomi Ungerer, Centre International de l’Ilustration, Strasbourg, France, in the exhibition “Saul Steinberg: L’ecriture visuelle,” November 27, 2009–February 28, 2010.
“an old Jewish man”: Adam Gopnik, from the multiple drafts of “Talks with Steinberg,” 1986–93, YCAL, Boxes 48 and 67.
The work was steadying: The following account is based on letters from Rosa and Moritz Steinberg and Lica and Ilie Roman to ST, from January 1958 through January 1959, Romanian letters, YCAL, Boxes 8 and 14.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: CLASSIC SYMPTOMS
“I’m a bit troubled and confused”: ST to AB, October 16, 1958, SSF.
He said it needed further breaking in: In WMAA, p. 242, ST writes that he went by bus and rented car. Undated letters from HS refer to his driving the Jaguar.
“the ancestors of the Americans”: WMAA, p. 242.
“Here’s where they ought to”: ST to AB, July 30, 1958, SSF.
“I hear you are rich”: ST to HS, “Sat Apr 12” [1958], AAA. The annual Whitney exhibition of sculpture, paintings, and watercolors was November 20, 1957 to January 12, 1958.
She had four new shows: For full details, see chronology in Eckhardt, Uninterupted Flux, p. 123.
Such excessive delight: HS to ST, n.d. but internal evidence suggests late 1958, YCAL, microfilm letters. Alexander Stille, interview, January 6, 2009, said, “I think he [ST] was infatuated with Elizabeth’s kids. I think there was the fantasy of having a family, plus a ménage à cinq with Hedda. Hedda was very taken with Elizabeth’s kids. There was something very strange about this.”
plunked his “ass on the chair”: ST to AB, June 1, 1958, SSF.
Deep down, however, he knew: ST to AB, July 30, 1958, SSF.
“life … seen here”: WMAA, p. 243.
“easily found, not easily selected”: Brian Appel, “Beauty and ‘the Beats’—Robert Frank’s “The Americans” (1955–56): Poised for New Highs in the Age of Bush?,” p. 5, http://artcritical.com/appel/BAFrank.htm.
Delpire, aware of Steinberg’s enormous popularity: In 2009, rare first editions of the 1959 Delpire publication were being offered over the Internet for upward of $50,000. Delpire recalled telling Frank, “ ‘You can use a photo for the American edition’…but when I reprinted the book in 1986, I used a photograph because I had discovered, basically, that he was right.” See “Dream Team,” July 7, 2009, http://doublemoine.com/2009/07/dream-team/.
He filled a sketchbook: YCAL, Sketchbook 4891.
He brought home numerous souvenirs: WMAA, p. 242.
He arrived in Copenhagen: ST to HS, December 3, 1958, AAA.
His hosts pulled out all the stops: ST to HS, December 5, 1958, AAA.
“interesting insane Dane-painter”: ST to HS, “Monday morning” (December 7, 1958), AAA.
“another normality”: WMAA, p. 243.
“Raskolnikoff quarters”: ST to HS, December 10, 1958.
The children were happy in school: ST to HS, “Thursday” (December, 1958), AAA.
“Dear Sauly”: Ilie Roman to ST, November 15, 1958, Romanian letters, YCAL.
“the usual. I see too many people”: ST to AB, January 8, 1959.
The magazine was not yet ready: Reproduced in Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 65.
Stanley Marcus bought the original: Stanley Marcus to ST, February 4, 1959, YCAL, Box 6.
A housewife in Berkeley: This letter and those cited below are in ST’s fan mail, YCAL, Box 6.
It helped that his work: One example of many: WMAA acquired “Railroad Station” through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Carl L. Seldon, YCAL, Box 6.
He did continue to work: Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 6, notes that he contributed 89 covers, more than 600 independent cartoons and drawings, and nearly 500 that appeared within multipage features. There were also still-uncounted “spots” and “spot fillers.”
“very particular about his drawings”: HS insisted this was true, but others, all connected to the magazine, denied it: Roger Angell, interview, May 6, 2008; Lee Lorenz, interview, September 12, 2007; Frank Modell, interview, September 24, 2007.
“noise and confusion”: Lee Lorenz, interview, September 12, 2007.
“a perfect fit”: Roger Angell, interview, May 6, 2008.
The latter concerned a promotion booklet: Information that follows is from correspondence in YCAL, Box 6, between Gene Walz, art buyer for FCB; ST’s lawyer, Alexander Lindey; and ST’s letter of April 17, 1959 to Walz via Lindey.
“could authorize anyone”: Robert H. Busler of Hallmark, April 17, 1959; ST to Hallmark, n.d. but shortly after; both YCAL, Box 6.
He went so far as to promise: Kepes to ST, August 6, 1959, YCAL, Box 6. Kepes was also professor of visual design at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.
“I find it impossible to write”: ST to AB, April 23, 1959.
In early spring, Ruth and Tino: Springs, East Hampton, and Amagansett have been used interchangeably to describe the location in various articles and interviews. Springs is a section within the Township of East Hampton, as is the village of Amagansett. ST’s property is 433 Old Stone Highway, in the Springs section.
The Nivolas had been in Springs: Information that follows is from Ruth Nivola, interviews and conversations throughout 2007, and Claire Nivola, interviews, conversations, and private correspondence, 2007–10.
In the decade since: The size of the property is sometimes given as more than thirty acres; Claire Nivola confirmed that “quite a bit later,” her parents bought an additional six acres.
Inside the house: LeCorbusier painted the mural in September–October 1950.
The Nivola household had become: For an engaging account, see Alastair Gordon, Weekend Utopia: Modern Living in the Hamptons (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), particularly pp. 43–57.
He did, and several days later: Henry Adler McCarthy, attorney and counselor at law, East Hampton, April 23, 1959, re: proposed contract from Jonathan A. Miller and Maude I. Miller to Saul Steinberg.
Steinberg paid $12,500 cash: Steinberg agreed to pay $12,500 for the house and seven acres. He originally planned to finance $5,000 with a GI Bill mortgage, but securing it was a protracted process involving mountains of paperwork and he wanted the house right away. A letter from the Chemical Corn Exchange Bank, where he had banked since 1942, attested that he was a “long and favorably known” client with accounts that averaged “in the medium five figures.” Chemical Corn Exchange Bank to ST, May 21, 1959, YCAL Box 6; deed of sale is in YCAL, Box 39.
“We’re neighbors now”: ST to AB, January 8, 1960.
And besides, he was used to: ST, National Diary datebook, May 26, 1959, YCAL, Box 4.
“Too bad it’s full of children”: ST to AB, May 23, 1959.
In August 1959, he was beset: Information that follows is from his datebook, YCAL, Box 3, and from ST to HS, “Monday, August 16, 1959 from Tropicana, Las Vegas Nevada,” AAA.
“Traveling has been for me”: ST to AB, January 8, 1960.
The major cause of his anxiety: Alexander Stille, interview, January 6, 2009: “I am not sure what happened. My mother fell in love with him, or thought she did.”
But when Saul returned: ST’s datebook for November–December 1959 is filled with initials, times, and places; YCAL, Box 3.
It created a tremendous personal crisis: Alexander Stille, interview, January 6, 2009, and HS, interview, March 29, 2007: “He went to a Freudian, but he deprecated it and always spoke scathingly of Freudian analysis. In the last year or two he was with me, he drank too much. He had terrible hangov
ers and wanted to get rid of them and he said Freudian analysis freed him of them. He never admitted the main reason he went [to analysis], Elizabeth.” In 2010, Claire Nivola consulted her mother’s diary to see what she had written about her role in the affair and found that Ruth Nivola had torn those pages out and destroyed them.
Ugo Stille seems not to have known: Alexander Stille had a series of conversations with his mother during her final illness (she died in 1993). “I found out [about ST] because she told me, she talked about it. She was a pretty direct kind of person and the relationship mattered to her. She had none other like this one.” Of his father: “I never talked to him about the [ST] relationship. He was not the kind of man who would discuss personal issues.”
Apparently they did not end the affair: Throughout my interviews and conversations with HS, she made it clear that her lack of forgiveness was for this single incident and that she and Ruth Nivola remained friends for the rest of their lives.
“She calls out to me”: ST, spiral notebook that begins April 29, 1984, YCAL, Box 95.
“for some time I’ve been”: ST to AB, January 8, 1960, SSF.
“I haven’t written you”: ST to AB, August 7, 1960, SSF.
“kicked him out”: HS, interviews and conversations, 2008.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: THE THIRTY-FIVE YEARS’ WAR
“If Saul wants pasta”: ST, diary, May 22, 1991, quoting Consolata Solarola Isola, YCAL, Box 75.
She had asked him to leave: ST, diary, May 19, 1991, YCAL, Box 75; HS, in a story repeated often throughout 2007 interviews and telephone conversations.
Her fear was that if they did not behave: HS to ST, n.d., YCAL, microfilm letters.
He asked himself questions: ST, pocket diary, February 25 and March 3, 1960, YCAL, Box 3.
Rica Roman lost so much weight: Lica Roman to ST, October 6, 1959, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14.
She did not convince Saul: ST to HS, “Pont Royal, Sat. April 1960,” AAA.
“Mom doesn’t let go of money”: Moritz Steinberg to ST, September 23, 1959, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14.