Saul Steinberg: A Biography

by Deirdre Bair

  When he began to see her more frequently: ST to AB, June 17, 1996; PC, e-mail to DB, December 6, 2010.

  Saul attempted to work out: The account that follows is from ST, diary, June 2, 1991, YCAL, Box 75. HS recounted this conversation in much the same language as that ST used in the diary and verified that the “P” he referred to was Prudence Crowther; telephone conversation October 23, 2007.

  “the crème de la crème”: ST to AB, November 29, 1991, SSF.

  “to universal surpise”: ST to AB, January 7, 1992, SSF; reproduced on p. 193 in Discovery of America.

  It was one of the drawings: According to SSF, July 2011, these covers were printed not from original drawings but from color photocopies in TNY files. It appears that ST was publishing some things during Gottlieb’s tenure—for example, the three covers plus the April 30, 1990, “Canal Street” drawing in conjunction with IF’s book of the same name.

  After that, whenever he felt he had something: The covers appeared on January 13, June 8, September 7, and November 30, 1992; May 17, 1993, and February 28, April 25, and October 10, 1994; all are reproduced in Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 138.

  Tina Brown was so intent: Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 46.

  “such absurd one-dimensional publicity”: In ST to AB, December 12, 1992, ST writes that the four covers had already appeared in “that book,” in which they had been “used by those thieves with more impunity than usual.” The book was Seasons at The New Yorker: Six Decades of Cover Art, reprinted by the National Academy of Design, 1990. Tina Brown to ST, March 12, 1994, YCAL, Box 39.

  When he had drawings he wanted to submit: For a description of how they worked, see Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 47.

  “Whenever and wherever”: William Shawn to ST, December 8, 1992, YCAL, Box 32. For Shawn’s misdating, see also ST to AB, December 12, 1992.

  He had to stop playing this mental game: ST, diary, Thursday, May 30, 1991, YCAL, Box 75.

  “walking for two hours”: ST, diary, June 14, 1991, YCAL, Box 75.

  While he was there, she went: SS’s medical records regarding the depression and suicide attempt are in YCAL, Box 110. They give June 27, 1992, as the date she sought help for “acute depression,” and July 13 as the date she took an overdose of sleeping pills. In YCAL, Box 34, letter from SS to ST, December 27, 1992, she writes that “exactly six months ago, June 27” was the day she made the suicide attempt.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: AFFIRMATION OF THINGS AS THEY ARE

  “Something else, too, came to me”: C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Vintage, 1989), pp. 296–97. ST photocopied these pages and highlighted the paragraph with the passage quoted above; YCAL, Box 38.

  Steinberg found Sigrid: The account that follows is from a diary entry by SS, mistakenly dated June 26, 1992, as this event did not happen until July 13, according to the admission date on the records of Southampton Hospital; YCAL, Box 110.

  “waking with his name”: Ibid. The account that follows is based on medical documents in YCAL, Boxes 34, 38, 58, 110, 111, and 112, and interviews, conversations, and e-mails with (among others) PC, IF, HS, Claire Nivola, and Vita Peterson.

  “for doing this awful thing”: SS, suicide note mistakenly dated June 27, 1992, YCAL, Box 110.

  “It’s rather nice”: SS to ST, Friday, July 17, 1992, YCAL, Box 111.

  Once back in the city: SS, living will dated August 18, 1992, YCAL, Box 112. It replaced a letter written July 26, 1989, YCAL, Box 110, to her lawyer, Barry Kaplan, in which SS wrote that she did not know the rules of New York State but she did not want life support: “I want to be put out of my misery quickly. Could you please add this to my will.”

  She settled into her apartment: SS, diary writings in YCAL, Boxes 110 and 111, and letter to ST from Southampton Hospital, July 17, 1992, also YCAL, Box 110.

  This worried Evelyn Hofer: Evelyn Hofer to ST, n.d., 1996, written shortly after SS’s suicide, YCAL, Box 58.

  In the letter she told Glimcher: SS to Arne Glimcher (copy to ST), April 7, 1992, YCAL, Box 38.

  He was shocked and in despair: Documents pertaining to the sale are in YCAL, Box 112.

  She sent him color photocopies: The drawings were of the Hell Gate Bridge and some New York taxis; they and her note are in YCAL, Box 124. Sometime later, she sold a de Kooning drawing, but the date and the provenance are not clear. She alludes to this obliquely in diary writings in YCAL, Box 108.

  “From Steinberg: $30,000”: SS, assorted papers in YCAL, Box 110.

  “depression and recent hypo/manic episode”: SS, file card dated May 3, but probably misdated as there are other credit card listings with later dates in the name of “Mrs. Steinberg,” YCAL, Box 110. Other bills and order forms are in YCAL, Boxes 69 and 109.

  “reflected the entire drama”: ST to AB, July 31, 1992, SSF. Dr. Morton Fisch was attached to Lenox Hill Hospital and had been ST’s internist for more than twenty years. Later ST consulted Dr. Jeffrey Tepler, to whom he was referred by William Gaddis. Medical information from PC, e-mail, December 6, 2010.

  “powerful emotions”: ST to AB, July 31, 1992, SSF.

  “nobody dies of heartbreak”: ST, undated jotting in a small notebook he kept from April to May 1993, YCAL, Box 95.

  “I am the same age as Lincoln”: One of the obituaries she clipped was of Pierre Beregovy, prime minister of France, May 9, 1993; from her collection of suicides in YCAL, Box 110.

  She continued to see Dr. Wanner: In an e-mail of November 13, 2007, Dr. Wanner, a Jungian analyst, said he had promised SS’s family and her lawyer not to divulge information. I regret that all information about SS’s treatment is one-sided, as it comes from her, ST, their friends and associates, and other information in the YCAL boxes.

  She photocopied many pages: C. G. Jung to “Anonymous,” March 9, 1959, in Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffé, eds., C. G. Jung: Letters, Vol. 2, 1951–1961 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1953), p. 492. SS also read Anthony Stevens’s and Joseph Campbell’s writings but did not specify which. Photocopied pages in YCAL, Box 38; other information from YCAL, Box 110.

  “how extraordinary”: SS to ST, December 27, 1992, YCAL, Box 34.

  “Everything is going so well”: SS, writing on a copy of two printings of the name “Steinberg” in bold black type, YCAL, Box 38.

  She sent another worrisome signal: The letter is Joseph J. Schildkraut, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, to the New York Times, Sunday, March 27, 1994, copy in YCAL, Box 110.

  “constantly worried”: ST to AB, August 26, 1992, SSF.

  “removed from life”: ST to AB, August 2, 1992, SSF.

  He saw the books she left lying around: Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 296–97. ST’s photocopies are in YCAL, Box 38.

  As Steinberg read Jung’s life story: Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 289–98; see also D. Bair, Jung: A Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 2003), chapter 32, pp. 496–502.

  Jung never became one of the philosophers: HS, telephone conversation, October 23, 2007, said she did not remember ST ever introducing Jung’s name into conversation. She “may have done, once or twice,” but not because she found his writings personally influential. There is no reference to Jung in any of ST’s correspondence with AB, nor in any of ST’s diary writings.

  “one does not meddle”: Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 297.

  “I can’t. It’s my magazine”: ST to AB, January 9, 1993, SSF.

  Miles wrote that the magazine: Jack Miles, “What Has Happened to The New Yorker?” Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 25, 1993, p. 16.

  Steinberg put this piece into his: YCAL, Box 121.

  “fine wine in an ugly”: ST to AB, July 1, 1993, SSF.

  “he’s one of those people”: ST to AB, January 28, 1993, SSF.

  “remembers everything about the earlier days”: ST to AB, April 16, 1993, SSF. On April 26, 1993, ST wrote that he had “done 4 or 5 Simics.” ST told Simic
that “you look like a good drawing.” To AB, he wrote: “In reality, his eyes appear to have been painted on his glasses, like a sign at the oculist’s.” On September 6, 1993, YCAL, Box 87, he wrote to tell Simic he was sending one of his portraits, “pencil on wood … drawing on wood is like on skin, a tattoo. Lumber stays alive a long time.”

  Playing with portraits and blocks of wood: ST to Charles Simic, September 6, 1993, YCAL, Box 87.

  “young and well-nourished son”: ST to AB, March 9, 1993, SSF.

  “at the home of his publisher”: ST to AB, April 11, 1993, SSF.

  Eco’s American editor: Drenka Willen, interview, May 13, 2008.

  He especially liked the way: ST to AB, February 15, 1993, SSF.

  “loyal love for the man”: ST’s undated draft of the letter he eventually sent is in YCAL, Box 87; Shirley Hazzard’s reply is dated December 19, 1994, also YCAL, Box 87.

  “an experiment”: PC, e-mail, December 14, 2010.

  “hidden surprises”: ST to AB, December 7, 1992, SSF.

  “suspicious”: ST to AB, April 26, 1993, SSF.

  “a discovery”: ST to AB, July 1, 1993, SSF.

  For the next several years, Steinberg sent: ST to AB, January 7, 1992; correspondence between ST and Munro, YCAL, Boxes 58, 65, and 75. On February 27, 1994, YCAL, Box 65, she wrote that she would not send her photo in exchange for the one that he sent her but would send a story instead, which would not be published anywhere but for a Canadian fund-raiser.

  Brian Boyd’s biography: ST to AB, January 14 and 25, 1992, SSF.

  “rivermaid’s father”: Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister (New York: Library of America, 1996), p. 168.

  This time, however, he wanted to be: ST, notebook, n.d., April–May 1993, and small spiral notebook, May 1993, both YCAL, Box 95. In the published Italian edition of the ST/AB letters, p. 230, AB mistakenly inserts the word “Überlingen” after the “Buchinger Clinic.”

  “blessed with invisibility”: ST to AB, Juy 20, 1993, SSF.

  The next day he and Dana: ST to AB, May 24, 1993, SSF.

  “the rich live badly”: ST, undated jotting in April–May 1993 notebook, YCAL, Box 95.

  “miserable black slime”: ST to AB, May 24, 1993, SSF.

  “the companionship of one’s selves”: ST to AB, June 13, 1993, SSF.

  Hedda sent a note: HS to ST, YCAL, Box 22; HS, telephone conversation, October 23, 2007. In a letter to Saul Bellow, SS writes that ST’s “private birthday is on June 27.” His letter is dated June 1, 1987, and hers is a draft of her reply, YCAL, Box 110.

  “paradise”: ST to AB, July 31, 1993, SSF.

  “so worried and caring”: HS, interview, October 24, 1907.

  “the other important thing”: ST to AB, August 29, 1993, SSF.

  “added intensity”: ST to AB, September 18, 1993, SSF.

  “My happy memory of St. Barth”: ST to AB, March 12, 1994, SSF.

  “understand[ing] drawing”: ST to AB, March 4, 1994, SSF.

  “Of course Tina wants it for the noise”: ST to Saul Bellow, Friday, February 11, 1994, YCAL, Box 87.

  Bellow advised caution: The pieces were not published until February 21–28, 2000 and are reproduced in Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, pp. 218, 222–23. On p. 221 there is a reproduction of ST’s “autogeography,” a map of his personal history that he made in 1966 but never submitted for publication. Correspondence between ST and Tina Brown, January 12 and March 2, 1994, YCAL, Box 65, indicates that negotiations about the “Jewish cover” were protracted and in the end ST and Brown concurred that it should not be published.

  “return to me all photocopies”: ST to Françoise Mouly, March 14, 1994, YCAL, Box 71.

  Steinberg called their collaboration: ST to AB, April 30, 1995.

  “even dogs gazed at us”: ST to AB, September 26, 1993.

  “a terror mixed with curiosity”: ST to AB, September 28, 1993.

  “a man in the act of thinking”: ST to AB, January 7, 1994.

  Steinberg and Buzzi talked about: AB, in an interview conducted by Carole Chiodo on July 29, 2008, verified that he and ST either talked about or actually worked or reworked the book’s proposed content in the two decades before it was published in Italy. AB also verified that the book was eventually published because he wanted the publication and “could use the money, small though it was.”

  “thought it over once more”: AB, “Foreword,” R & S.

  “with pleasure, with surprise”: ST to AB, April 30, 1995.

  In 2002 it appeared in an English translation: Originally published in Italian as Riflessi e ombre (Milan: Adelphi Edizioni, 2001); English translation by John Shepley, Reflections and Shadows (New York: Random House, 2002); French and German editions also 2002.

  “a man full of doubts”: AB, “Foreword,” R & S, p. vii.

  “June 28, 1994”: ST, spiral notebook, June 1994, YCAL, Box 95.

  “keep quiet”: SS, note on cardboard tablet backing, Saturday, June 17, 1994, YCAL, Box 110.

  He had engaged professional photographers: According to the “Preliminary List, 2004,” YCAL, Uncat. Mss. 126, photographic material is primarily, but not exclusively, in Boxes 19–30. Many that I have referred to are in Boxes 80 (binders filled with negatives of his work) and 81 (photos in a format suitable for cataloguing, all prepared by the same photographer).

  On his own initiative: John Hollander to ST, July 29, 1994, YCAL, Box 38; ST to AB, November 8, 1993.

  “mostly because not having children”: ST to AB, December 18, 1955, SSF.

  “curiosity … searching”: ST to AB, July 31, 1993, SSF.

  “like a sleepwalker”: ST to AB, June 19, 1995, SSF.

  Steinberg felt sorrow that such a vital man: ST to AB, June 29 and August 7 and 15, 1995, SSF.

  Steinberg’s only acknowledgment: IF, interview, October 12, 2007.

  He was constantly worried about Sigrid: ST to AB, July 10, 1995, SSF.

  He exploded every time: ST to AB, February 20 and 27, 1995, SSF.

  “absence of terror”: ST to AB, December 27, 1995, SSF.

  “This time,” he told Aldo: ST to AB, February 11, 1996.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: WHAT’S THE POINT?

  “The tragic depression, the constant and inexplicable terror”: ST to AB, November 24, 1996, SSF.

  “definitely not malignant”: ST, note, May 1, 1993, YCAL, Box 95. In a note written by AB and published in Italian with ST’s letter of March 30, 1998, AB writes: “During his final visit to Überlingen (1995), routine blood tests unexpectedly revealed the presence of tumorous activity … The doctors [in NY] called Steinberg’s case ‘indolent,’ meaning that it was progressing very slowly. ‘You will not die of this,’ they told him.”

  A second CT scan confirmed: Reading of CT scan taken October 20, 1995, YCAL, Box 71; second CT scan taken October 27, 1997, YCAL, Box 90.

  “I have a feeling”: Medical diagnosis of Dr. Jatin P. Shah, M.D., copy in YCAL, Box 71.

  “medullary carcinoma”: Medical diagnosis of Dr. Jatin P. Shah, February 29, 1996, YCAL, Box 71.

  “He has had suicidal ideation”: Dr. Jeffrey Tepler, M.D., to Dr. Chaikowsky, August 6, 1996, copy in YCAL, Box 71.

  Although most of his close friends were aware: I base this on interviews and conversations with HS, AB, Claire Nivola, Charles Simic, Drenka Willen, Cilla and Norman Manea, IF, and many others.

  “austerely private self”: Muriel Murphy to ST, January 4, 1990, YCAL, Box 87. Although written earlier, I cite it here as the best example of the concern that had been building among ST’s friends throughout the 1990s.

  She made another journey to Mali: A telegram from ST to SS in Bamako, Mali, tells her he read about “roads crowded with refugees from Nigeria. Please be wise. Come Home”; YCAL, Box 113.

  As this amount would vary: ST to Neuberger & Berman, January 11, 1996, YCAL, Box 112.

  “Why can’t you be proud of me?”: SS to ST, February 27, 1996, YCAL, Box 113.

  “Prudence becam
e the brick”: HS, interview, October 24, 2007.

  Steinberg thought Prudence would be: Information that follows is from PC, in documents prepared for this book, December 6, 2010.

  On November 5, 1996: A copy of the last will and testament, dated November 5, 1996, with a letter from John Silberman dated November 12, 1996, is in YCAL, Box 70.

  He left $50,000: William Gaddis predeceased ST, dying on December 16, 1998. ST wrote to his son, Matthew, on February 3, 1999, that he was honoring his initial bequest “in the name of friendship” by leaving the money to Gaddis’s children. ST signed his letter “with strong emotion and love, Saul”; YCAL, Box 70.

  “For an hour, in silence”: ST to AB, July 9, 1996, SSF.

  Steinberg kept a daily diary: YCAL, Box 82.

  The official death certificate: Copy in YCAL, Box 113.

  Sigrid left two letters: Copy of SS’s letter to Ursula Beard and copy of her handwritten suicide letter, YCAL, Box 113. I have followed her spelling and punctuation. ST later made multiple photocopies of the letter and sent it to many of his friends. Other unsent copies are scattered throughout YCAL boxes and are in collections of his correspondence with (among others), AB and IF, both SSF, and Claire Nivola, in her possession. HS put her copy into the large dictionary where she stored “the things that are important to me.”

  he called Hedda: In a telephone conversation, September 22, 2007, HS said she remembered calling Muriel Murphy, William Gaddis, and Ruth Nivola.

  In a state of emotional paralysis: Ruth Nivola, diary, September 25, 1996, and interview, September 22, 2007; Hedda Sterne, telephone conversation, September 25, 2007.

  He also called the Riverside Memorial Chapel: ST, diary-datebook, September 25, 1996, YCAL, Box 82. The two unidentified names are “Caroline” and “Tad Soltesz.”

  “Tangible property”: YCAL, Box 113, folder pertaining to SS’s cremation.

  Although he told everyone: IF, interview, October 12, 1997.

  Sigrid’s will brought another round of shocks: Copy of SS’s last will and testament, March 15, 1989, YCAL, Box 113.

  Steinberg had to apply separately: In a handwritten note to her lawyer, YCAL, Box 34, “Sigrid Folder,” SS specified that ST’s art should go to the New York Public Library. Since it was not witnessed, it did not override her official will and Ursula Beard retained possession of the art and other personal possessions. Beard tried to sell them through the Pace Gallery, which chose not to represent her. Subsequently, however, the Galerie Bartsch & Chariau in Munich and the Adam Baumgold Gallery in New York mounted shows. The Galerie G & B held the show “Sammlung Sigrid Spaeth, 45 Originalzeichnung 1950–84,” September 13–November 8, 1997: Adam Baumgold’s show, “Saul Steinberg,” was December–February 1998. It was reviewed in Artnews, May, 1998, pp. 170–71. The review began: “When graphic designer Sigrid Spaeth died in 1996, her estate included more than 40 works by Saul Steinberg, dating from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. Collected here, they made for a small enchanting survey of Steinberg’s career.”