Saul Steinberg: A Biography

by Deirdre Bair

  “What a scandal”: Moritz Steinberg to ST, November 14, 1959, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14.

  “I gave it to him”: ST to HS, “Southampton, April 17, 1960,” AAA.

  “loss of time and fatigue”: ST to HS, “Pont Royal, Sat. Apr. 1960,” AAA.

  Steinberg’s disposition suffered further: ST to Aimé Maeght, June 1, 1960, SSF. Maeght commissioned the Giacometti scarves in 1960, but except for a number of sample copies he gave to family and friends, they were never sold. In 2009, LVMH commissioned a limited edition for its flagship Louis Vuitton stores in conjunction with the LVMH-sponsored exhibition of Giacometti’s work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

  “better than usual”: ST to HS, “Nice May 5, 1960,” AAA.

  “unbelievable complications”: ST to Aimé Maeght, June 1, 1960: “Les notaries et les agents d’immeubles après des complications incroyables m’ont enfin vendue une bonne maison avec jardin—en banlieue”; SSF.

  He left instructions with Rica: R & M to ST, May 28, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL.

  “Is this suitable for our age?”: R & M to ST, June 1, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL.

  Cass Canfield had become his editor: ST, pocket diary, 1960, YCAL, Box 3.

  He went home to 71st Street: Barbara Daly Baekeland signed only her first name on the stationery engraved with her initials, BDB. Information that follows is from BDB to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 14. In YCAL, Box 102, ST has a clipping from the New York Times about the slaying of Barbara Daly Baekeland on November 17, 1972, by her son, Antony, with whom she was allegedly in an incestuous relationship. Unlike other news stories and obituaries about people ST knew, most of which he annotated heavily, this one was filed without comment. Baekeland was probably the woman in Paris who signed her letters only as “Barbara” and with whom he had a long and highly neurotic affair throughout the 1960s. See also Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson, Savage Grace (New York: Morrow, 1985), p. 35, where ST is quoted: “Saul spoke of Barbara’s whiteness, her white skin, her Irish skin, white lovely skin, red hair—her fresh marvelous look.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: CHANGES AND NEW THINGS

  “I haven’t written to you”: ST to AB, August 7, 1960, SSF.

  On July 9, 1960, he wrote: ST, National Diary, 1960, YCAL, Box 3. “Ala” was probably the architect Ala Damaz, who worked on his 75th Street apartment.

  “Catch ’em young”: From “The Girl in the Spotlight,” by Victor Herbert and Richard Bruce.

  Those who were present at the start: Among these were HS, Ruth Nivola, Vita Peterson, Dore Ashton, Benjamin Sonnenberg, and many others.

  When she told him she was planning: In her “Life in Postcards” she writes that she did hitchhike to Provincetown; in other diary entries she describes how she took a train, and in a letter dated “p.m. Aug. 60,” she says she is writing to him while on the train; YCAL, Box 110. Also calendar listing dates in Provincetown, YCAL, Box 108.

  When he listed his “engagements”: ST’s memo to himself on a page titled “Engagements for the week,” YCAL, Box 14, Folder “Correspondence 1959–61.” Also ST, National Diary, July–August, 1960, YCAL, Box 3.

  “but I never got to see”: SS, “My Life in Postcards,” YCAL, Box 110.

  And in the week following: In the letter dated “p.m. Aug. 60,” written on the train to Provincetown, SS tells ST, “When I find myself hanging on you like today, I want to dislike myself and I couldn’t go home and do something. If I had some work I maybe would have made it.” It is the first of her oblique requests that soon become overt when she asks him to help her find work. Among the friends ST consulted were Serge Chermayef, n.d., YCAL, Box 14, who tried to find work for her at Harvard and who contacted his counterpart at the University of Chicago Press, and Paul Rand, n.d., YCAL Box 14, who spoke to the designer Irving Miller and Allan Thurlbut, the art director at Look.

  “classically Nordic”: Descriptions of SS that follow are from interviews with (among many others) Richard Fadem, March 2, 2010; Dore Ashton, February 24, 2010; HS, March 29, 2007; Ruth Nivola, July 24 and September 22, 2007; Claire Nivola, July 2, 2008; Mimi Gross, March 9, 2010; and Benjamin Sonnenberg, telephone conversations, July 2007.

  “represented his idea of Eros”: HS, interview, March 29, 2007.

  She was born long after: In a diary entry for April 15, 1992, YCAL, Box 111, she writes that she first went to Trier for “my brother’s funeral,” so she must have had two brothers, although no other mention is made of the one who died.

  She liked to joke: From interviews with Ruth Nivola, Dore Ashton, Vita Peterson, and many others. HS, interview, April 18, 2007, said that “Sigrid’s attitude about herself was that she was absolutely not to be forgiven for German Nazi behavior; she was filled with guilt over it.” HS added that it was difficult “to know the true degree of Sigrid’s Germanness.”

  “terrible years of the war”: From an undated, untitled page of diary writing in YCAL, Box 108.

  “evil or bad”: SS, diary, “Tues. 21 91,” which precedes the dated entry for May 22, 1991, YCAL, Box 111. According to SS, when her mother met ST for the first time she used these words to describe her daughter.

  “authority and establishment”: SS, diary, September 8, 1971, YCAL, Box 108. When she wrote this, she was describing ST, saying he had become “all I ran away from home from,” and then she went on to compare his behavior to her father’s.

  “It didn’t work out”: SS, “My Life in Postcards,” April 15, 1994, YCAL, Box 110. This is a collection of postcards on which she made biographical observations.

  She was later vague: SS to Uschi, October 22, 1971, YCAL, Box 108.

  She never explained how: Biographical information is from SS’s “Synopsis” of her life in USA from 1958 to 1971, YCAL, Box 108.

  she was crashing in a friend’s apartment: SS, a single page of “Important Dates” in her handwriting, YCAL, Box 108. Her date for the first meeting with ST, July 11, differs from his, given above as July 9.

  “stupid and innocent enthusiasm”: SS, diary, May 9, 1970, YCAL, Box 112.

  Hedda called to ask his advice: ST, National Diary, entries for August 23 and 27, September 2, 8, 14, and 16, 1960, YCAL, Box 3; HS, interviews and conversations, 2007.

  While he was dealing with police reports: Lica Roman to ST, August 2, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  The house had to be gutted: Rica Roman’s letter of July 30, 1960, gives the details of many of these expenditures; Romanian letters,” YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  Steinberg wrote checks: Moritz Steinberg to ST, July 19, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  “Mom doesn’t feel very well”: Moritz Steinberg to ST, July 28, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  “You can’t imagine my pain”: Rosa Steinberg to ST, August 6, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  Steinberg used his contacts: Rica Roman to ST, August 20, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1. He learned that he was hired on December 22, 1960, to begin work at Schlumberger just after New Year’s 1961.

  “either to remain in Nice”: Rica Roman to ST, August 20, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  Lica had secured a job: She left L’Arche shortly after to work for La revue mensuelle du fonds social juif unifie (La revue du FSJU), to which ST took a subscription, YCAL, Box 13. In her letters, particularly September 17, 1960, Lica described her work on L’Arche as “in the New Yorker’s style” and asked ST to send a drawing for the magazine to use. There is no record that he complied with her request.

  “We loved each other”: Rosa Steinberg to ST, September 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  “like being on a permanent vacation”: Lica Roman to ST, September 17, 1960, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  In almost every letter to Saul: Rosa Steinberg to ST, November 22, 1960, December 28, 1960, and others, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 1.

  “his idea of friendshi
p”: HS, interview, October 24, 2007.

  “found it a little difficult”: HS, interview, May 8, 2007. She added: “After twenty or thirty years of separation, every now and again he would ask me if I still had something that he remembered and wanted now, and of course I always gave it to him. Sometimes I asked him for something. There was an occasional exchange of goods, but that’s all.”

  There was a fairly large group: HS, interview, October 24, 2007. Among those she edited out were May and Harold Rosenberg, Evelyn Hofer and Humphrey Sutton, Ingeborg Ten Haeff and Paul Weiner.

  “I did that with or without”: Ibid. She refers to her two husbands, who supported her throughout her lifetime. Eleanor Munro interviewed HS for her book Originals: American Women Artists (New York: DaCapo, 2000). In an interview with DB, May 31, 2007, Munro said, “There was always something very ascetic about Hedda. How she suffered terribly after he left her! All those exercises she did to purify her mind; how rigorously she painted!” HS’s “one unfinished love affair” was with Theodore “Teddy” Brauner, the younger brother of Victor, who lived with her in the New York house and who accompanied her to Venice during her Fulbright year. She added that she was “fifty-five or fifty-six” when she made the decision to become celibate.

  “I was a zombie”: SS, diary, January 9, 1963.

  Every now and again a commission: John Hollander, Vision and Resonance: Two Senses of Poetic Form (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975). A folder of SS’s book jackets are in YCAL, Box 111, and include Peter Gay’s Freud for Historians and the Oxford Anthology of English Literature, Volume I. Most of her designs are for scholarly books and are fairly conservative, with neat lettering and little illustration. At a time before computers, when hand lettering was a skill publishers sought, SS was noted for her talent in creating or copying beautiful typefaces. Among the other writers whose covers she designed were Theodore Hershberg, Richard Sewell, Theodore Reik, and Joseph Epstein.

  “To you my darling”: SS to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 13, Folder “Correspondence 1960–61.”

  “relentless recorder of urban types”: Grace Glueck, YCAL, Box 13.

  “even greater inventiveness”: Phillip Day, “The Labyrinth,” Sunday Times, May 20, 1961.

  To make sure that Steinberg had calmed down: Cass Canfield to ST, January 17, 1961, YCAL, Box 13.

  The book sold around: Cass Canfield to ST, April 1 and 21, 1965, YCAL, Box 15.

  Canfield planned to use the phrase: The Wilson and Mumford information is from ST to HS, May 3, 1961; the Huxley from Cass Canfield to ST, January 17, 1961, YCAL, Box 13.

  “Let’s face it”: Cass Canfield to ST, April 21, 1964, YCAL, Box 15.

  He was in Paris: ST’s reply to “Mr. Kunz” was actually to Professor Paul Grimley Kuntz, a member of the philosophy faculty of Emory University. Prof. Kuntz was active in the university’s studies in law and religion and he was also cognizant of ST’s drawings for Paul Tillich’s My Search for Absolutes. ST’s letter is May 7, 1966, YCAL, Box 15, Folder 1965–66. Eugene Freeman wrote to ST on May 27 to say that Professor Kuntz “was so pleased with your rebuke that … he wants to publish it.”

  When she was trying to determine: Meera E. Agarwal, Vassar College Senior Project, “Steinberg’s Treatment of the Theme of the Artist: A Collage of Conversations,” December 8, 1972, YCAL, Box 78.

  “suit that looks more”: SS to ST, May 19, 1961.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: I LIVED WITH HER FOR SO LONG

  “Hedda and I have become friends”: ST to AB, March 16, 1961, SSF.

  “It now seems to me”: ST to AB, October 9, 1961, SSF.

  The house had always been in Hedda’s name: ST to HS, July 19, 1961, AAA: “As I paid the insurance for it in the past and now the company says that it should be transferred to me, I’ll pay you $400 for it. A bargain. The car must be worth $25. I’ll try to fix it properly and you’ll use it any time. It’s yours anyway. If you agree, please sign … sign Hedda Steinberg only.”

  “got all he wanted”: HS, interviews, March 29 and May 8, 2007. In the latter interview, HS alluded to the “deep hurt” she felt when ST left her for SS. She said, “People can be wounded but will do what they need to do in order to keep a situation on an even keel.” When we spoke of how many women assumed the role of stabilizer in disintegrating relationships, she became vehement and insisted that “this is the necessary thing to do, and I was right to do it.”

  As for Steinberg himself: Many people related this anecdote in interviews and conversations, among them Hedda Sterne, Dore Ashton, Cornelia Foss, Mimi Gross, Priscilla Morgan, and Daniela Roman. They and others, Richard Fedem and Ruth Nivola among them, also related how angry it made SS, because she did want marriage and children in their early years together.

  “Please take good care”: ST to HS, May 16, 1961, AAA, in which he mentions “Del Corso, Lattuada, and Aldo.”

  And yet, even as he wished her: ST to HS, July 19, 1961, AAA.

  “that having pleasure”: ST to HS, May 16, 1961, AAA.

  “It’s now a mark of distinction”: ST to HS, June 29, 1961, AAA.

  He worked in Springs: Unless otherwise noted, information that follows is from two 1961 datebooks, YCAL, Box 3.

  He had become close to Inge Morath: Morath and Miller married on February 17, 1962. ST became a frequent visitor to their home in Roxbury, Connecticut. They were so close that ST was the only guest invited to stay in the Miller home during the festivities celebrating Arthur Miller’s eightieth birthday; Inge Morath, note to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 35.

  Eventually he let her capture him: SS prepared a mock curriculum vitae sometime in late 1961 or early 1962, YCAL, Box 17, with topic headings such as “studied,” “worked,” “lives,” “owns.” Under “got rid of,” she wrote first of his mustache, then “an attitude to be photographed preferably with paper masks.” Le Masque was first published in conjunction with ST’s 1965 exhibition at Galerie Maeght, with texts by Michel Butor and Harold Rosenberg, photos by Inge Morath (Paris: Maeght Editeur, 1966). Unrelated drawings to this show appeared in a TNY portfolio on May 5, 1962. See also S:I, pp. 149–50, and Catalogue, n. 93. The book Saul Steinberg: Masquerade was published by Viking Studio Books (New York: Penguin, 2002).

  He accepted the dinner invitation: ST became litigious when the Vancouver, British Columbia, Festival bought the rights to the production and used his drawings. On October 4, 1961, Paul Feigay wrote to apologize for assuming that, having bought the entire production, they had also bought the rights to use ST’s drawings. It was a genuine mistake and all ST’s drawings were removed from use. Berghof wrote to ST from Rome, October 17, 1961, to apologize for “the flap and the mix-up” over his name, which he did not want “to color” their friendship. YCAL, Box 14.

  Morgan was the American associate director: Morgan was responsible for ST’s contributions during the next several years. The request to borrow the drawing came officially from MoMA in a letter of May 8, 1961, YCAL, Box 13.

  “wish to present something abstract”: Frank Metz to ST, April 21, 1961, YCAL, Box 13.

  “the usual Pont Royal”: ST to HS, “Monday 15 May” [1961], AAA. In YCAL, Box 3, ST’s 1961 datebook shows that he was in Rome on June 1, in Venice on June 4, and in Milan on June 6, returning to Paris on June 9.

  “It’s not fair”: ST to HS, August 20, 1961, AAA. The artist is identified only as “Ruth” in correspondence from this period.

  “I don’t know what the cause”: Rosa Steinberg to ST, April 28, 1961.

  This became her genuine attitude: Daniela Roman, interviews and conversations, 2007, Amagansett and Paris.

  “all very glamorous”: SS, “My Life in Postcards,” YCAL, Box 110.

  He also learned to swim: See S:I, pp. 175–76.

  He told Aldo that it was: ST to AB, Amagansett, July 28, 1961, SSF.

  Their social life had been mostly with old friends: Connie Breuer to ST, October 15, 1961, YCAL, Box 14. The Breuers wanted ST to meet Willy Staehelin, a Zurich lawyer for w
hom Marcel had built a house and for whom ST would later design a very personal Christmas card.

  he only went to the theater: In an interview he gave to the Appleton, Wisconsin, Post-Crescent when he received an honorary degree in June 1962, he said, “The theater is mediocre. People here go to the theater to be seen—not to see anything”; YCAL, Box 14.

  When Sasha Schneider praised: SS to ST, in care of Ernesto Rogers in Milan, December 8, 1961.

  “the appendage in this relationship”: Mimi Gross, interview, March 9, 2010; Cornelia Foss, interview, March 20, 2010.

  “I sit here all evening”: SS to ST, on the back of an envelope telling him his subscription to Dissent has expired, n.d., YCAL, Box 13, Folder “Correspondence 1960–61.” The only punctuation SS used was dashes, which I have mostly replicated, adding the occasional period where I thought it appropriate.

  “so wrapped up in his ‘art’ ”: SS wrote this on September 8, 1971, reflecting back on her first years with ST; YCAL, Box 108.

  As always, travel presented a way: The mural was destroyed in 1997 when the house was torn down and a commercial building erected.

  While he was making preparations: Information that follows is from Lica Roman to ST, September 7, 11, and 24, and October 1 and 10, 1961, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folders 2 and 3.

  It was a difficult time: Iancu Marcovici to ST, November 13, 1961, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 2.

  “great changes and renewal”: Lica Roman to ST, April 14, 1962, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 14, Folder 2.

  After he finished the Via Bigli mural: SS to ST, December 8, 1961, YCAL, Box 14.

  He started to make lists: ST, “List of Weekly Engagements, December 26, 1961,” YCAL, Box 14, “Correspondence 1961–63.”

  He was worried when she told him: SS to ST, November 29, 1961, YCAL, Box 14.

  the first of the long series of psychoanalysts: She was seeing June M. Barrack, M.S.S., several times weekly, and the bills were addressed to him. The rusting hulk of the Chevrolet is still behind his studio in Springs.