thirteen months: Matter, pp. 36–37. The original manuscript can be found at Burns, 13:1.
“sound of the name”: Kunstler, I, 3.
Sheridan Square: Whyte, The WPA Guide, pp. 140–42.
Jones Street: Ware, p. 44.
“liked the little streets”: Alexander and Weadick.
a small elevator: JJ to Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, July 12, 2000, Burns.
$50 a month: 1940 U.S. Census, which also tells us something of Jane’s neighbors.
“lived there quite a while”: Alexander and Weadick.
“Did you hang out?”: Kunstler, I, p. 4.
“ ‘long-haired men’ ”: Ware, p. 3.
“Messages”: D&L, p. 175.
“complicated great place”: Matter, p. 15.
Scharf Brothers: Application for Federal Appointment, November 27, 1943, StL.
She wrote to: Interview, Burgin Jacobs.
father sat her down: Dark, p. 54.
“a mess in there”: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
“Miss Eldridge”: Joe Polakoff, “About a Man’s Man,” Scranton Tribune, 1937.
“dented by four little windows”: “Dr. J. D. Butzner Dies in Hospital,” Scranton Tribune, December 23, 1937.
admitted to probate: Lackawanna County, PA, Register of Wills, January 6, 1938.
Peter A. Frasse: Application for Federal Appointment, September 8, 1949, Attachment F, StL; records of Peter A. Frasse & Co., 1818–1977, at the New-York Historical Society, make no reference to Jane Butzner.
curls of steel: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
“do the work of three girls”: FBI, Jane Butzner Jacobs, File No. 123–252, July 20, 1948, p. 6.
“ ‘trouble shooting’ secretary”: Application for Federal Appointment, September 8, 1949, Attachment F, StL. “Junior Efficiency Engineer” is my conceit, not her title.
CHAPTER 5: MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS
if not a writer: M. Ondaatje to Jane Jacobs, September 26, 1994, and undated reply, Burns, 6:5.
geology course: Information on this and others of Jane’s courses at Columbia comes from Bulletin of University Extension, 1938–1939.
“clay dogs”: D&L, p. 582.
Jane Butzner, grade transcript, Columbia University School of General Studies.
New York University: “Information Required to Complete Application,” response to question, “Have you taken any courses in English or journalism?,” January 5, 1950, StL.
lab notebook: It was called Laboratory Directions in Elementary Vertebrate Zoology. Furnished by Jim Jacobs.
one version of a story: The story, in similar form, related by three family members.
Neil T. Dowling: Group of articles about Dowling in Columbia Law Review 58, no. 5 (May 1958): 589–612, by Herbert Wechsler, Stanley Reed, William T. Bossett, Thomas I. Parkinson, Frederic P. Lee; Louis Luskey, “In Memoriam Noel T. Dowling,” Columbia Law Review 69, no. 3 (March 1969): 351–52. See also Columbia University Bulletin of Information, 1938–1939, for information on Jane’s law courses.
a single house: Chaff, p. 5.
“the second to check”: Chaff, p. 7.
“danger to the public interest”: Chaff, p. 57.
“a faithless thing”: Chaff, p. 1.
“best possible reason”: Chaff, preface.
“affected air of wisdom”: Chaff, p. 160.
“a well done job”: Noel T. Dowling to Charles G. Proffitt, June 3, 1940, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“of any source”: Henry H. Wiggins to Jane Butzner, July 15, 1940, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“some difficulty”: H.H.W., Memo for the File, July 24, 1940, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
life insurance settlement: Interview, Jim Jacobs, who also suggests Jane may have received some help from Hemphill, who was romantically involved with Betty at this time. In Jane’s preface to Chaff, she acknowledges “the enthusiasm and wisdom of Robert H. Hemphill.”
Mrs. Butzner sent her a check: JJ to her mother, penciled onto bottom of Jane Butzner to R. F. Price, Dorrance & Co., January 18, 1939, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“I am delighted”: Jane Butzner to Charles G. Proffitt, January 2, 1941, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“composing their own divergences”: Chaff, p. 1.
“helpful counsel”: Note of thanks on typescript of Chaff given to John Butzner, courtesy Decker Butzner.
boat trip up the Atlantic coast: Ethics, p. 229.
“thought it was so cute”: Kunstler, II, p. 9.
“A Woman Blazes a Trail”: Jane Butzner to Fleming H. Revell Co., December 7, 1939, Burns, 17.
“threw together a manuscript”: Alaska, p. xiv.
“some admirers who liked it”: Alaska, p. xv. The story of Hannah Breece and her Alaska manuscript is taken up again in chapter 23.
“moves along too slowly”: Elizabeth M. Morrow to Jane Butzner, April 16, 1940, Burns, 17.
“lacked sufficient craftsmanship”: Alaska, p. xv.
“loved geology and zoology”: Matter, p. 3.
“was almost my undoing”: Matter, p. 3.
“the Dragon Lady”: Account drawn from Harvey, p. 37, and video interview of JJ by Lucy Jacobs, 1992.
“I could spell molybdenum”: Matter, p. 12.
$25 a week: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment E, StL.
train to Philadelphia: Application for Federal Employment, October 26, 1946, StL.
“lunchtime in Wall Street”: Kunstler, I, p. 2.
processing servicemen: For New York City during the war, see Diehl; Jackson, WWII & NYC; exhibition of the same name, at New-York Historical Society, 2012, provided further details.
“Everyone knew it was ghoulish”: Dark, p. 55.
CHAPTER 6: WOMEN’S WORK
in late 1942: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment E, StL. “Shortly before I had completed two years” at Iron Age, she was promoted, which would make it about late 1942.
“All the common non-ferrous metals”: J. I. Butzner, “Non-Ferrous Metals,” Iron Age, January 7, 1943.
course in physical metallurgy: The certificate is dated May 20, 1943. The course comprised sixty-three class hours and was conducted through Columbia University, Burns, 23:3.
substantial autonomy: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment E, StL.
helping out her hometown: The Scranton story is nicely told in Lang and Wunsch, pp. 31–33. See also Jane Butzner, “Daily’s Effort Saves City from ‘Ghost Town’ Fate,” Editor & Publisher (1943); “30,000 Unemployed and 7,000 Empty Houses in Scranton, Neglected City,” Iron Age, March 25, 1943.
boss didn’t much like it: For one take, see LaurenceDiss, pp. 93–95.
A week before: Jane Butzner, “Trylon’s Steel Helps to Build Big New Nickel Plant in Cuba,” New York Herald Tribune, December 27, 1942.
women on the home front: Jane Butzner, “Women Wanted…” Washington Post, October 26, 1942.
same pay: Jane Jacobs to Carroll St. Claire, July 22, 1949, Answers to Interrogatory for Jane Butzner Jacobs, paragraph 1, Burns.
T. W. Lippert: See Carnegie Alumnus, unknown date, class notes, ’32.
“loose and untrue”: JJ to Carroll St. Claire, July 22, 1949, Answers to Interrogatory for Jane Butzner Jacobs, paragraph 1, Burns.
“a troublemaker and an agitator”: FBI File 123–252, July 20, 1948, p. 5.
all but hers: Application for Federal Employment, November 27, 1943, StL; Certificate of Medical Examination, November 26, 1943, StL.
Office of War Information: See Winkler; Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment D, StL; interview, Jim Jacobs.
“with unmistakable American sincerity”: Winkler, p. 76.
“the strategy of truth”: Winkler, p. 13.
“necessary for me”: Application for Federal Employment, September 8
, 1949, Attachment D, StL.
“rapid promotion”: “Justification for ‘Rapid Promotion,’ ” prepared by Frederick Silber, October 3, 1944, StL.
“a very brilliant”: LaurenceDiss, p. 74.
dragooned into service: Matter, p. 44.
“a new permanent wave”: JJ to her mother, penciled onto bottom of JJ to R. F. Price, Dorrance & Co., January 18, 1939, Columbia University Press Papers, ColumbiaRare.
“the children here gawk”: JJ to her family, January 21, 1967, Burns, 4:7.
“a handsome, impressive woman”: Interview, John Jacobs.
Grumman Aircraft: See Diehl, pp. 172–74.
“I walked in the door”: Matter, p. 12.
CHAPTER 7: AMERIKA
Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr.: Interviews with Bob’s children, his cousin John, and his wife, Katia, and other family and friends; informal timeline by his granddaughter Caitlin, Burns, 22; biographical listings including American Architects Journal, 2nd edition, 1962; obituary, Villager, September 25, 1996; Robert Fulford, “Lives Lived”: Robert Hyde Jacobs,” Globe and Mail, September 24, 1996; Sid Adilman, “Robert H. Jacobs, 79, Hospital Architect,” Toronto Star, September 19, 1996.
Sutton Hotel: Harvey, p. 36.
a hose clamp: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
“known her sister”: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
The small wedding: Matter, pp. 42–43.
announces the marriage: Burns, 38:4.
“conventionally not good-looking”: Telephone interview, Katia Jacobs.
“easy intimacy”: Robert Fulford, “Lives Lived”: Robert Hyde Jacobs,” Globe and Mail, September 24, 1996.
weakness for alliteration: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
design, descriptive geometry: Columbia University School of Architecture, program description, 1930s.
urine-release gizmo: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
“We run the risk”: Robert Hyde Jacobs Jr., p. 107.
“playing second fiddle”: See also Sid Adilman, “Robert H. Jacobs, 79, Hospital Architect,” Toronto Star, September 19, 1996”: “He preferred to be in the background, especially where his wife’s writings and fame were concerned. ‘I know that my wife is more eminent than I am,’ he told a friend this summer. ‘I’m proud of that and I am so proud of her.’ ”
“Without warning”: Pete Hamill, A Drinking Life: A Memoir (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), p. 50.
“They were so fast”: Harvey, p. 37.
no one at the OWI: Interview, Jim Jacobs.
another party: This account drawn from Matter, p. 45.
Jane became a freelancer: In Jane’s Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment C, StL, she recounts her freelance period.
“damp, dimly lighted”: Eric A. Feldt, The Coast Watchers (New York: Ballantine Books, 1959), p. 7. Originally published by Oxford University Press, 1946.
“Christmas cookies”: Matter, p. 38.
“chicken-wire crab traps”: Jane Jacobs, “Island the Boats Pass By,” Harper’s Bazaar (July 1947): 79.
$88 a week: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment A, StL.
Amerika: Account drawn from visual review of Russian-language issues from period Jane worked at the magazine; select translations from the Russian by Anne-Marie Corley; correspondence and other documents, CollPark, mostly RG 9 P 316, Boxes 3 and 4; Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment A, StL; Elise Crane, “The Full-Format American Dream: Amerika as a Key Tool of Cold War Public Diplomacy,” American Diplomacy (January 2010); Creighton Peet, “Russian ‘Amerika,’ a Magazine About U.S. for Soviet Citizens,” College Art Journal (Autumn, 1951): 17–21; Andrew L. Yarrow, “Selling a Vision of American to the World: Changing Messages in Early U.S. Cold War Print Propaganda,” Journal of Cold War Studies (fall 2009): 3–45.
“a particularly fine job”: Joseph O. Hanson Jr. to Marion Sanders, March 12, 1948, RG 59, P 316 Box 3, CollPark.
“translation problems”: Marion K. Sanders to George A. Morgan, December 3, 1948, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“juke box”: Peet, p. 19.
“hell-for-leather New Yorker”: Telephone interview, John Jacobs.
“life history” of a single article: Marion K. Sanders to Melville J. Ruggles, June 27, 1947, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“Reader comments”: Memo, “Reader Reaction—Regarding the Problem of Credibility,” March 11, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 2, CollPark.
“create the precise impression”: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment A, p. 2, StL.
“Why don’t you come”: Telephone interview, John Jacobs.
three-quarters of her time: Application for Federal Employment, September 8, 1949, Attachment A, p. 6, StL.
those the FBI interviewed: Account drawn from 258-page file on Jane Butzner Jacobs obtained through Freedom of Information Act request, June 2014. Subsequent specific citations normally given by file no., field office, and date.
“sugar daddy”: FBI file no. 123–252, New York, September 8, 1948. The “Mr. Roberts” cited in the report, according to Jim Jacobs, is Robert Hemphill. See also FBI File no. 123–245, Cincinnati, September 13, 1948, for reference to Hemphill.
half naked: FBI File no. 123–252, New York, September 8, 1948.
“he had no reason”: FBI File no. 123–252, New York, September 8, 1948.
a three-page reply: JJ to Carroll St. Claire, July 22, 1949, with attached “Answers to Interrogatory for Jane Butzner Jacobs,” Burns, 5:4.
“lying little magazine”: V. Kusakov, “American ‘Horizons,’ ” Izvestia, September 16, 1949, with appended “Analysis of Criticism,” by R. S. Collins, in memorandum, American Embassy, September 27, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
CHAPTER 8: Trushchoby
“an ugly flat, steel box”: V. Kusakov, “American ‘Horizons,’ ” Izvestia, September 16, 1949, with appended “Analysis of Criticism,” by R. S. Collins, in memorandum, American Embassy, September 27, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“ ‘slums’ means one thing to Americans”: R. S. Collins, in memorandum, American Embassy, September 27, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“flattering”: M. Gordon Knox to Marion Sanders, September 30, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“made us cringe”: To Gordon Knox from unidentified Amerika staffer, perhaps John Jacobs, October 12, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“by cubic meter”: M. Gordon Knox to Marion Sanders, September 30, 1949, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“courageous, careful”: Gordon Knox to John Jacobs, February 11, 1950, no. 53., RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark. Knox’s comment actually appears as part of a letter under the signature of Ralph Collins who, on p. 2, writes, “Gordon drafted the present letter up to this point.”
“ ‘trushchoby’ on every page”: Gordon Knox to Marion Sanders, March 13, 1960, no. 56, RG 59, P 316, Box 3, CollPark.
“Planned Rebuilding”: I am indebted to Anne-Marie Corley for her translation of this article and the illustration captions accompanying it.
settling down: About Bessie’s move to Fredericksburg (probably in early 1948) and that she let out rooms for students at Mary Washington College is drawn from “Results of Investigation,” June 7, 1948, Richmond, VA, Jane Butzner Jacobs, FBI. Other details drawn from interviews with numerous family members.
three-story house: 555 Hudson Street has, of course, emerged as legendary. This account is built up from interviews with family members and other visitors to the house; the Canada Dry detail owes to Matter, pp. 64–65; Jane’s recollection of the big rats is from Matter, p. 213.
assess Jane’s case: Conrad E. Snow to James E. Hatcher, September 19, 1951, FBI.
“a degree of immorality”: December 10, 1951, Ba. 123–1256, FBI.
eight-thousand-word missive: Matter, pp. 169–79.
“no option but to agree”: John Butzner to JJ, January 4, 1998, Burns, 20.
> “a safe conclusion”: M. Gordon Knox to Marion Sanders, April 4, 1950, RG 59, P 315, Box 3, CollPark.
soul searching over its mission: For example, Tobe Brunner to Marion Sanders and John Jacobs, January 30, 1952, RG 59, P 316, Box 1, CollPark.
“prior to decision on loyalty”: Hiram Bingham to J. Edgar Hoover, June 20, 1952, 123–393, FBI.
drawn to two magazines: Matter, p. 4.
“They asked me”: JJ to Roberta Brandes Gratz, March 20, 1979, Gratz papers.
taught her to read blueprints: Matter, p. 4. See also Lucile Preuss, quoting JJ, Sunday Milwaukee Journal, July 8, 1962: “I’d work days. Nights, after the children were in bed, my husband gave me lessons in reading plans so I’d know enough to do the stories.”
“its planted entrance court”: “Big Double Hospital,” Architectural Forum (June 1952): 138–45. (In this same issue, Forum welcomed Lever House, a modernist icon: “From across Park Avenue, Lever House is a horizontal streak of stainless steel and green glass suspended on rows of tall columns, whose metal skins have a cool wavering sheen.”)
“speeds things up”: “Self-Selection,” Architectural Forum (November 1953): 156–68. When the story came out, American Druggist sent someone out to interview her, Burns, 4:1.
“wondrous complexity”: Robert Fulford, “Lives Lived: Robert Hyde Jacobs,” Globe and Mail, September 24, 1996.
“Every way you turn”: Memo, Douglas Haskell to Perry Prentice, August 25, 1953, HaskellPap, 38:11.
“I heartily dislike”: Memo, JJ to Douglas Haskell, October 4, 1955, HaskellPap, 14:6.
“a spectacularly bad example”: Memo, JJ to Douglas Haskell, April 27, 1954, HaskellPap, 6:4.
hadn’t been doing a good job: Jane says as much in JJ to Grady Clay, March 1959, LaurenceDiss, p. 195.
CHAPTER 9: DISENCHANTMENT
Edmund Bacon: See, for example, Klemek, “Bacon’s Rebellion”; Izzy Kornblatt, “Planning Philadelphia,” review of Gregory L. Heller, Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia, Swarthmore Phoenix, January 20, 2014; Amateau, “Jane Jacobs, Urban Legend”; Inga Saffron, “An Appreciation: Flaws and All, Edmund N. Bacon Molded a Modern Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 2005; James Reichley, “Philadelphia Does It: The Battle for Penn Center,” Harper’s (February 1957), in HaskellPap, 36:10.
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