Saul Steinberg: A Biography

by Deirdre Bair

  “a bit sinister”: ST to AB, September 25, 1972, SSF.

  Sometimes he found a remnant: S:I, p. 40, fig. 31. See also figures of dog tag, datebook, and camera on p. 196.

  He began to make other objects as well: Cartier-Bresson’s camera is in the collection of the Fondation Cartier-Bresson, Paris. Helen Levitt’s was in her possession at the time of her death in 2009.

  “the rather animal world of painters”: ST to AB, March 10, 1973, SSF.

  “I think there were too many”: ST hired Sig Lomaky in the 1960s for occasional help in constructing his wooden sculptures. He writes about Lomaky in R & S, pp. 90–94.

  He himself may have been unable: The comment is by Gordon Pulis, interview, September 22, 2007. ST is shown making his own carved wood objects in the last half of the film Du côté chez les Maeght, October 1973. (The first half features Valerio Adami.)

  One of the earliest tables: S:I, Catalogue 71, p. 196.

  At the top of the tableau: ST often incorporated actual etching plates into the tables.

  Steinberg called one of the intriguing: Wood assemblage with crayon and pencil, depicted in S:I, p. 216 bottom.

  Many were three-dimensional replicas: He left them to Yale University and they currently make up YCAL, Boxes 134–72. The objects themselves were not in the YCAL bequest and are in SSF.

  Whether he referred to them: Gordon Pulis, telephone conversation, June 29, 2010.

  Hedda Sterne thought it was because: Ibid.; HS, interview, October 7, 2007; Daniela Roman, conversation, July 27, 2008. Sheila Schwartz confirmed that “Furniture as Biography,” wood assemblage with crayon and pencil, was on the transparency from which the photo in S:I, p. 216, fig. 84, was made. She thinks the title “Grand Hotel” may have been given in the course of preparing the 1987 show and catalogue. According to Pace’s records, the work was returned to ST on May 2, 1989, which is when he probably consigned it to the cellar beneath his studio. Schwartz does not know when or by whom it was disassembled, but she verified that several pieces of it are still extant, now owned by SSF.

  One of the most revealing wooden constructions: Pencil and mixed media on wood assemblage, depicted in S:I, p. 216, fig. 84.

  “in fact, I’m preparing a show”: ST to AB, March 10, 1973, SSF.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: UP TO MY NOSE IN TROUBLE

  “All’s well here”: ST to AB, May 4, 1974, SSF.

  “The show, yes, it went well”: ST to AB, March 10, 1973, SSF.

  “utterly captivated”: Philip Guston to ST, February 4, 1973, YCAL, Box 102.

  “the boring problems”: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

  He found what he wanted: ST to AB, June 28, 1973, SSF. He bought the apartment on May 31, 1973, from Edgar and Joan P. Stillman, for a total cost of $71,500. He did not get a mortgage but paid them $41,500 cash and they held a promissory note for $30,000. Documentation in YCAL, Box 39.

  “a talented, charming, reliable man”: Letters dated April 1973. Bodian was a partner in the CPA firm of Breiner & Bodian; YCAL, Box 103. In a legal document that “settled the rights and interests” of ST and HS, December 19, 1989, YCAL, Box 71, ST’s net worth had risen to $4,669,000.

  It resembled all too closely: Documents and photocopies of most of his memberships and awards, YCAL, Box 32.

  His dues were in arrears: ST became a member in 1965, nominated by Eric Larrabee, Sidney Simon, and Brendan Gill. He resigned on October 19, 1975, because he never used the club’s facilities. I am grateful to Dr. Russell Flinchum, archivist of the Century Association, for documentation concerning ST’s membership.

  “Everyone … looked fabulous”: “Suzy,” New York Daily News, March 20, 1974, YCAL, Box 32.

  The most oft-repeated story: Among the many people who told versions of these stories in interviews were HS, AB, Vita Peterson, Ruth Nivola, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. I had conversations with others who were guests on these occasions and claimed to have witnessed them firsthand but did not wish to be cited.

  He hired the architect: Various documents concerning the renovation are in YCAL, Box 73. Floor plans for alterations, May 1978, are in YCAL, Box 32. PC, e-mail, July 20, 2010, provided details of the layout. In his veiled datebook notations, “Ala” had been appearing for the better part of the previous decade.

  He ended up living through: ST to AB, June 28, 1973; Anton van Dalen, interview, October 5, 2007.

  Finally, everything was settled and approved: ST to AB, November 12, 1973, SSF.

  The two housing decisions were momentous: ST to AB, December 3, 1973, SSF.

  He thought the addition dwarfed: ST to AB, February 1, 1974, SSF.

  “temporary … improvised”: ST to AB, June 12, 1974, SSF.

  “fucking patria”: ST wrote this in a diary entry on his seventy-seventh birthday, June 15, 1997, YCAL, Box 75. Immediately after, he wrote: “Unfortunately all my landscapes, smells, sounds, tastes, are there. Houses, courtyards, sky, mountain, snow.”

  He wondered if his disposition: ST to AB, September 25, 1972, SSF.

  “in harmony for the moment”: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

  “a nightmare”: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

  “depressing, disaster”: ST to AB, September 8, 1973, SSF.

  “biting its own tail”: Edith Schloss, “Around the European Galleries,” International Herald-Tribune, October 27–28, 1973.

  Steinberg had occasionally used de Bloe: After de Bloe bought several watercolors from the exhibition, Steinberg instructed him to send the $4,000 payment directly to Aldo, who was to keep $3,000 and send the remaining $1,000 to Ada. AB thanks ST, December 7, 1973, YCAL, Box 102, for money that brought tranquillity to a stressful financial period.

  Although the Internal Revenue Service: Serge de Bloe to ST, December 18, 1973, YCAL, Box 102. He tells ST he sent the check per ST’s instructions. Letters from the IRS and ST’s tax accountants in YCAL, Box 101, verify that he was being audited, that he was late in paying previous years’ taxes, and that he had applied for an extension of the April 15, 1973, deadline. The amounts ST contributed often exceeded the amount permitted as gifts.

  Until now he had never volunteered: In an undated letter in YCAL, Box 101, Ada asks ST where the television he promised to send her is.

  “doing a good or bad thing”: ST to AB, December 3, 1973, SSF.

  Mary McCarthy came: McCarthy thanked him for the dance in a letter, October 19, 1973, YCAL, Box 102. Information that follows until noted otherwise is from this letter.

  He sent almost the entire amount: Mary McCarthy to ST, November 7, 1973, to thank him for the money, and again on December 12, 1973, to tell him of progress made; YCAL, Box 102.

  He was generous with his work: Marten Bogner bought the McGovern-Shriver painting; Frances O’Brien, March 28, 1972, thanked ST on behalf of Spanish refugees. Both in YCAL, Box 102. On July 13, 1975, O’Brien wrote again to thank ST for a second contribution, an original four-color print; YCAL, Box 103.

  Judith Hope, who was running for reelection: On June 18, 1985, Judith Hope wrote to tell ST that she wanted him to hear from her first that she was withdrawing from the campaign; YCAL, Box 103.

  He gave permission: The work was from the May 25, 1968, issue, pp. 36–37, 40–41; the anthology was published by Dell.

  Shortly after, the group asked him: National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 102; letter confirming his promise to create “only the front cover,” May 8, 1975.

  But when the National Lawyers Guild: The first letter is undated, the second is February 26, 1974, YCAL, Box 103.

  It was not a politically correct thing to do: Letter of invitation, April 4, 1972, YCAL, Box 102.

  His work had always been of interest: Agarwal, “Steinberg’s Treatment of the Theme of the Artist,” with several interviews beginning December 8, 1972, YCAL, Box 78.1; Ralph Neubeck, “A Biographical Critique of Steinberg’s Work with Particular Emphasis on Its Relationship to the American Culture and Sense of Hum
or, with Particular Emphasis on the Humorous Content,” PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, Department of American Studies, 1972; Ralph Neubeck to ST, January 20 and March 24, 1972, YCAL, Box 102.

  the cartoonist Garry Trudeau: Garry Trudeau to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 102.

  Steinberg’s work even penetrated the Romanian Iron Curtain: Nick Luddington of Associated Press to ST, October 21, 1974, YCAL, Box 103; Matty Aslan to ST, Bucharest, 2 ionie, 1974, YCAL, Box 103. To prevent government intervention, Luddington asked ST to send any replies to Aslan through him, and a brief exchange ensued between them. Examples of Rosa Steinberg’s embroidery, including ST’s bib from his 1914 birth, with his name in pink thread in chain stitch on ecru lace, are in YCAL, Box 71.

  He had met Susan Sontag: According to the appeal, Sontag had a radical mastectomy in October 1975 and had no medical insurance to pay for it or money to support her son, David Rieff.

  He provided the jacket drawing: Hollander was published by Oxford University Press; YCAL, Box 103.

  When Nora Ephron: Nora Ephron to ST, March 26, 1975, YCAL, Box 103.

  Most recently he and Nabokov had disagreed: ST wrote to AB, March 5, 1975, giving hints of his conversation with Nabokov about a biography of Courbet. Of the biography, ST wrote: “Writers of biographies understand only other writers (as shown in diaries, letters, etc.).” Of Courbet: “Poor Courbet. When he wrote a letter he showed only his worst. His originality or uniqueness was involuntary, that of an animal that by some miracle painted, with naturally the great refinement and precision of beasts.”

  “maybe it could be done”: ST to AB, February 1 and 27, 1974, SSF.

  gave great care to nominating: An example of his political discretion came when he wanted to nominate Christo: ST enlisted George Rickey to propose Christo, and he and Isamu Noguchi seconded. He and Saul Bellow worked to secure William Gaddis’s membership. YCAL, Box 94.

  Awards and accolades from other institutions: A list of ST’s honorary degrees in SSF lists the following: Lawrence College, 1962; Harvard, 1976; Philadelphia College of Art, 1977; New York University, 1978; Royal College of Art, 1988; Yale, 1989. A photocopy without date, in Latin, is from “Moderamini Academiae Regiae Artium Nobilium in Urbe Hagana,” which Sheila Schwartz believes is from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. In 1983 ST was nominated for election to the Accademia Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, but SSF has no record that he was elected or that he accepted. A partial list of other honors include Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1966; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1968; Benjamin Franklin Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, London, 1969; Die Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, 1972; National Institute of Arts and Letters, Gold Medal for Eminence in Graphic Art, 1974; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, medal for drawing, 1976; AIA Medal, the American Institute of Architects, May 1976; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellow, 1978; [New York City] Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, 1983.

  “impossible to witness”: ST to Mrs. G. Walter Zahn and Richard Seyffert, October 31, 1976, YCAL, Box 103.

  Philip Johnson was the presenter: Philip Johnson Papers, I.109, Museum of Modern Art Archives, NY; published in Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 1975, p. 21; copy in YCAL, Box 103.

  He was alarmed when one of the women: ST to AB, May 4, 1974, SSF. The woman was known only as Erika.

  “What does this sadness mean?”: ST to AB, June 12, 1974, SSF.

  He kept in touch with Chiaromonte’s widow: Miriam Chiaramonte, articles and obituaries in YCAL, Box 102. In Box 22, letter of July 26, 1977, she thanks ST for signing a protest letter for Polish dissidents: “It’s fine that you gave your name.”

  His brother-in-law, Rica Roman: ST to AB, February 27, 1974, SSF.

  Steinberg gave her the happy news: ST to Lica Roman, May 14, 1975, YCAL, Box 22.

  He wondered if her low spirits: ST to AB, May 24, 1975, SSF.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: SADNESS LIKE AN ILLNESS

  “I’ve found and taken a good look”: ST to AB, October 9, 1975, SSF.

  Lica’s death at the relatively young age: ST to AB, July 19, 1975, SSF; Dana Roman and Stéphane Roman, interviews, January, 2008.

  “sadness was like an illness”: ST to AB, July 19, 1975, SSF.

  “depressed, scared in the morning”: ST to AB, March 5, 1975, SSF.

  All the while she had been with him: ST to AB, May 24, 1975, SSF.

  A number of interesting projects resulted: Some of SS’s other commissions included Cynthia Griffin Wolff, A Feast of Words: The Triumph of Edith Wharton; Richard Eberhart, Fields of Grace; William H. Pritchard, Lives of the Modern Poets; and Peter Conrad, Imagining America. All in YCAL, Box 32.

  “ideas were more developed”: Letters of rejection from the Whitney’s personnel department and from Barbara Toll, director of Hundred Acres Gallery, February 1973 and 1975, YCAL, Box 108.

  “Of course I still love you”: ST to SS, July 9, 1976, YCAL, Box 104, Folder “Paris Milano 1976 Jan 27–July 10.”

  Before Anton could do the actual packing: To help ST decide, Anton took photos of the studio so that ST could re-create various arrangements where he wanted them. The photos are in van Dalen’s personal collection.

  “the brutal image of the end of life”: In an interview with Mark Stevens, Newsweek, April 17, 1978, pp. 124–26, in conjunction with his 1978 WMAA retrospective, ST is quoted as saying that he is “a voyeur of himself.” Some of the stamps he collected include birds, JFK, and reproductions of art. These and various brochures are found in YCAL, Box 32, and also in some of the other uncatalogued boxes.

  He asked anyone traveling to Bucharest ST to Bert Chernow, interview for Christo and Jeanne-Claude; W. D. Snodgrass to ST, October 13, 1973, YCAL, Box 22; “Humphrey” [Sutton?], photographs of Strada Palas, 1973, YCAL, Box 22; Norman Manea, interview, June 11, 2008.

  “an emotional orgy”: ST to Henri Cartier-Bresson, February 28, 1999, YCAL, Box 73.

  Ada’s letter was especially poignant: Ada to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 38; ST to AB, May 24, 1975, SSF. Other letters from (among many) Sidney Janis, Cartier-Bresson, the Ionesco family, and Bram van Velde are scattered throughout YCAL boxes, among them 38 and 75.

  With Lica gone, he grew closer to Ada: Lica’s term is found throughout her correspondence with ST, SSF; Ada’s “olino” is a diminutive of “Saulino.”

  He stayed on in Springs: ST to AB, November 10, 1975, SSF.

  “who keeps writing wonders”: ST to AB, March 8, 1975, SSF. ST was probably referring to Hammett’s The Big Knockover (New York: Random House, 1966), edited by Hellmann, and to her first memoir, An Unfinished Woman (New York: Bantam Books, 1969).

  “Joyce’s illegitimate son”: ST to AB, August 15, 1976, SSF. ST had just read The Buenos Aires Affair, which he called “a novel disguised as a detective story.” He also recommended Betrayed by Rita Hayworth and later, in the 1990s, he liked The Kiss of the Spider Woman, both the book and the movie. Mainly he preferred European biography and fiction, such as the two novelists whose work he was currently exploring, Elsa Morante and Heinrich Böll.

  His recommendations often came: Claire Nivola, “Menu,” atop which ST has affixed two rubber stamp impressions of Millet’s Angelus; collection of Claire Nivola.

  “more contemporary and more historical”: Claire Nivola, telephone conversation, April 29, 1908.

  His most recent suggestion: ST to AB, May 10, 1976, SSF, in which he tells AB that Barthes is to write the introduction for the next DLM but that he had not yet read anything by Barthes. He planned to go to Paris in June 1976 specifically to meet Barthes and discuss what he would write. Although the two met as friends then and on other occasions, Barthes did not write for DLM, but he did supply the text for the 1983 book All Except You. In Claire Nivola to ST, May 17, 1975, she tells him that she forgot the title he wrote when he told her to read something of Barthes’s so they co
uld talk about it; YCAL, Box 104. On May 26, 1976, postcard in possession of Claire Nivola, he thanks her for an unnamed Barthes book: “—very difficult to understand. The obvious (to me) as explained by him—It’s his art.”

  This assertion led him to: Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (New York: Vintage Books, 1958), p. 208. ST’s copy is in YCAL, Box 32. ST was also reading Shattuck’s Proust’s Binoculars (New York: Random House, 1963).

  “closed, complete”: ST to AB, March 8, 1975, SSF.

  “completely lost faith”: ST to AB, June 19, 1976, SSF.

  After not having a single cover: ST to AB, October 23, 1976, SSF. The exhibition, “Steinberg Cartoons,” opened on November 17 and ran through December 4 (Parsons) and 11 (Janis).

  “Manhattanite dystopias”: S:I, p. 67; see also fig. 69 on that page, for Steinberg, Papoose, and the wall of drawings. Note also that he has regrown the mustache he cut off shortly after he met Sigrid and she objected to it. The TNY cover for October 20, 1975, is a compilation of his grotesque head shots.

  He took renewed pleasure: A collection of these drawings was published as Dal Vero (New York: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1983).

  While Ruth seethed: This account is based on interviews with Hedda Sterne, Aldo Buzzi, Ruth Nivola, Claire Nivola, Dore Ashton, Ivan Chermayeff, Vita Peterson, and many others. Chermayeff offered the most succinct appraisal of the difference between the two men: ST “was a bit of a shit. He was a self-oriented guy and he was not nice. Tino and Saul were exact opposites. Tino was outgoing, friendly, encouraging to others, a great person. Saul behaved to lots of people in the same snotty manner as he treated Tino. Genius or not, [ST] was not a nice guy. He had certain things missing from his life, which is probably why he loved Tino and Ruth. They are sophisticated, too, but they are simple, warm, and direct people. I think Saul was envious of their ability to go forward and do their own work. I think Saul was jealous. He was aware of the life they led and that they represented something he was not capable of being.”