Saul Steinberg: A Biography

by Deirdre Bair

  “an almost inaudible deep voice”: Ruth Nivola, diary, September 26–October 24, 1996. All of Nivola’s comments that follow are from this portion of her diary.

  “Saul was preparing himself”: Charles Simic, Drenka Willen, and Dore Ashton, in separate interviews, all used this expression. IF remarked that ST was “suicidal” after SS’s death.

  “practically catatonic with grief”: AB, interview, June 19, 2008. Ruth Nivola used the same expression in her diary entry for October 16, 1996.

  Arthur Danto wrote: Arthur C. Danto, November 30, 1996, YCAL, Box 59; Benjamin Sonnenberg, n.d., YCAL, Box 59.

  Peter and Maria Matthiessen: Peter and Maria Matthiessen, n.d., YCAL, Box 65; information about ST’s response from AB, interview, June 19, 2008.

  And Uschi Beard’s letter: Ursula Beard to ST, October 1, 1966, YCAL, Box 71.

  “This is the place”: SS, letter on pink paper, Saturday July 16, 1994, YCAL, Box 113.

  On November 7, with the assistance: PC, in a mss. note, 2011, said she tried to arrange a session with Dr. Virginia Goldner but the meeting never happened. Instead, Dr. Goldner suggested a male colleague, whom ST saw only once.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: NATURE’S CHARITABLE AMNESIA

  “I often surprise myself”: ST to AB, December 31, 1996, SSF.

  “rich, noisy invitations”: ST to AB, November 28, 1996, SSF.

  “the local Beaujolais”: ST to AB, November 24, 1996, SSF.

  “profound sadness”: ST to AB, November 28, 1996, SSF.

  Often she came to him: ST to AB, January 7, 1997, SSF.

  He could not help but think: ST to AB, December 31, 1996.

  “tremendous fear of dirt”: Mary Frank, interview, January 25, 2009.

  He liked Jean Stein’s dinner parties: Jean Stein, telephone conversation, August 15, 2007.

  “not thrilled to meet”: Norman Manea, interview, June 11, 2008.

  “When did you leave”: Norman Manea wrote a version of this meeting in “Made in Romania,” New York Review of Books 47, no. 2, February 10, 2000. I quote from his interview of June 11, 2008.

  At first the friendship was “tentative”: ST to AB, January 23, 1995, SSF.

  “an impossible return”: From “Un Dadaist?” (the Romanian version of Manea, “Made in Romania”), Apostroph, 10, no. 12 (1999), special issue, “In Memoriam Saul Steinberg,” pp. 12–22. There were many cuts in the published English version, but the full text in a translation by Emil Niculescu is in SSF.

  The magical feeling: ST’s boyhood home was still there in 1972, according to a photo in YCAL, Box 22.

  Prudence found: The map is reproduced in S:I, p. 267, along with a drawing ST made from it. It is also mentioned in ST to AB, February 4, 1999, SSF.

  “I’m passing my days”: ST to Henri Cartier-Bresson, February 28, 1999, YCAL, Box 73.

  “the poor guy”: ST to AB, January 23, 1995, SSF.

  “never be fightened or ashamed”: ST to AB, April 22, 1995, SSF.

  Ada had died quietly: I am grateful to Elissa Bruschini, who found the Ufficio dello Stato Civile Certificato di Morte, Comune di Erba, Provincia di Como; to Signora Loredana Masperi, director of Casa Prina, who, although constrained by Italian privacy laws, was able to provide background information; to AB, interview, June 19, 2007. MTL provided a copy of the death certificate to SSF, which was also made available to me.

  He knew they were serious: PC did not remember that he told her of Ada’s death, but her datebook for January 16 contains a note saying “Saul” followed by “Dr. Brooks,” who may have been one of the several psychiatrists Steinberg consulted that year; Prudence Crowther, e-mail, January 7, 2011.

  Steinberg liked the tree so much: Ibid. The drawing was published in AB’s article “Key West,” Raritan 27 (Summer 2007): 160. Ann Beattie remembered ST’s fascination with the tree in a conversation with DB, Brattleboro, Vermont, September 30, 2007. Four drawings of the tree are in YCAL, Sketchbook 4846, and are reproduced in S:I, p. 266.

  “strangeness more than anything else”: ST to AB, February 22, 1997, SSF.

  “a blessing I regard”: ST to AB, March 6, 1997, SSF.

  He asked Gordon Pulis to construct: ST to AB, April 13, 1997; Gordon Pulis, interview, September 22, 2007.

  He was afraid to see people: ST to AB, June 17, 1998, SSF.

  Searching for some explanation: References to Bernhard are found throughout ST’s letters to AB, 1997–98, SSF.

  At first Steinberg made excuses: ST to AB, July 7, 1998, SSF.

  He decided that the friendship stemmed: HS, conversation, December 11, 2008.

  The phone calls worried Aldo: Internal evidence in ST/AB correspondence suggested this; AB verified it in an interview, July 28, 2008.

  Even though he had not driven: The rusted body of his first Chevrolet, a 1953 model, is behind the garage of his property in Springs. In ST to AB, November 7, 1998, he wrote that Huang, his Vietnamese gardener, was clearing the underbrush that had been growing around it for many years. In a mss. note, 2011, PC affirmed that he bought the Volvo on Gaddis’s recommendation.

  He expressed regret that he had not reached out: ST to AB, June 17, 1997, SSF.

  He pretended to complain: ST to AB, August 14, 1997, SSF.

  “maybe the terror will disappear”: ST to AB, September 10, 1997, SSF.

  For more than a month at the end of 1997: ST to AB, October 14, 1997, SSF.

  Like one of his favorite fictional characters: ST to AB, November 5, 1997, SSF.

  Just as he sometimes thought Sigrid was there: ST to AB, December 12, 1997.

  Ann Beattie gave several small dinners: Ann Beattie, conversation, September 30, 2007. She remembered that ST “smoked a little grass” and enjoyed it.

  What he enjoyed most was the pleasure: PC, e-mail December 6, 2010.

  “Strange how the letters”: ST to IF, July 3, 1998, original in IF’s possession.

  “I took it as something crazy”: IF, interview, October 12, 2007.

  Next he asked Prudence: PC, mss. note, 2011.

  “tired of waiting for sanity to return”: ST to HS, “Monday morning” [May 20, 1955], AAA.

  Sometimes it made him wake up: HS, interviews and conversations, September–November 2007.

  By early December 1998 he feared: PC, e-mail, December 15, 2010. All information about ST’s ECT therapy is from this correspondence.

  Just before they left, he wrote: ST to Henri Cartier-Bresson, February 28, 1999, YCAL, Box 73.

  “many degrees of perfection”: ST to IF, March, 1999, SSF. ST wrote a similar message on a postcard to AB, March 10, 1999, SSF.

  “Lost memory of part of life”: ST, daily diary, March 8, 1999, YCAL, Box 82.

  “It is my opinion”: Dr. Frank T. Miller, M.D., to ST, April 11, 1999, YCAL, Box 71.

  During the last week of April 1999: ST’s last note in the daily diary for 1999, YCAL, Box 82, is dated April 27, when he wrote: “Sign proxy bldg 102; call Teppler.”

  “And then I went to the hospital”: PC, e-mail, January 7, 2011.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: THE ANNUS MIRABILIS OF 1999

  “The annus mirabilis of 1999”: ST to AB, January 24, 1999, SSF.

  While he was in the hospital: ST had named PC his health-care proxy sometime before his last hospitalization, when documents permitting her access to his medical records were drawn up by his lawyer, John Silberman. According to Crowther in mss. comments, December 6, 2010, where ST wrote “sign proxy” on April 27, 1999, YCAL, Box 82, he was referring to a duplicate required by the hospital. Information about ST’s last days is from PC, e-mail December 6, 2010; IF, interview, October 12, 2007; HS, interviews and conversations, 2007–8; Vita Peterson, interview, March 7, 2009; and Claire Nivola, interviews and conversations, 2008–10.

  She also recorded: All ST’s remarks this paragraph are from PC’s datebook, May 8, 1999, sent in an e-mail, December 6, 2010. Information about the various languages in which ST sometimes spoke is from interviews with the persons
cited in the text.

  they had never forged a friendship: HS verified this throughout our interviews and conversations and repeated it emphatically on December 11, 2008, after she had had a stroke. My impression was that she thought it was important for me to know this, and so I honor her intentions here.

  “I don’t think he’s breathing”: Ibid.

  “I am dying”: HS, interview, December 11, 2008. HS also told this to Claire Nivola, interview, July 2, 2008. PC, e-mail, December 6, 2010, questioned HS’s memory, saying that ST had also said this to her; “Does anyone know Saul’s last words? I don’t believe so.”

  EPILOGUE: THE UNCERTAINTY OF HIS PLACE

  His choice of media, his use of humor: Unsigned obituary, “Saul Steinberg,” East Hampton Star, May 20, 1999, copy in YCAL, Box 88, “Obituaries” Folder.

  Steinberg made his last will and testament: The last will and testament of Saul Steinberg, April 16, 1999, submitted by Attorney Lynn Saidenberg of the firm of John Silberman Associates PC, acting on behalf of Prudence Crowther and John Silberman as executors of the estate of Saul Steinberg, admitted to probate by the Surrogate’s Court of New York County by decree dated June 23, 1999; copy in SSF. It replaced an earlier will dated November 6, 1996, a copy of which is in YCAL, Box 70.

  He was the only person privy: PC, e-mail, December 15, 2010.

  “a non-profit organization”: The Saul Steinberg Foundation mission statement, http://www/saulsteinbergfoundation.org/. John Silberman and John Hollander left the board in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and were replaced by Megan Fox Kelley and Jeffrey Hoffeld. Sheila Schwartz was the original executive director and was serving in that capacity in 2012.

  The university’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: ST specified that besides the drawings 15 x 17 in. or smaller, his archives consisted of all his letters, bills, photographs, rubber stamps, notebooks, albums, manuscripts (whether by him or by others), plus all papers other than works of art, black-and-white cartoons created for TNY, and portraits or photographs of him by other persons. Yale received the papers, but all copyrights were retained by SSF. The archives were to be available only to scholars and researchers until 2009, after which the general public was permitted access to them. The university was not allowed to sell any drawings within the archives after 2009.

  Besides the generous financial bequests: In the final 1999 will, ST made several changes: he gave $50,000 each to Aldo Buzzi, Josephine Buttles, Anton van Dalen, IF, Gordon Pulis, Norman and Cella Manea, Lawrence Danson, Karen van Lengen, Maryam Javaheri Eng, and Mary Frank. Prudence Crowther received $100,000. Provision was made for Ada Ongari to receive $12,000 per annum for life if she survived him, but as she predeceased him, that money remained with his estate.

  He left the library: A note in Sheila Schwartz’s handwriting, appended to SSF’s copy of the article “The Artist as Collector,” by Andre Emmerich, Art in America no. 2 (Summer 1958), notes on p. 26 that ST’s collection of “a large group of turn-of-the-century doll-like bisque figurines,” a “black magic figure of wrought iron from Brazil, and “a small clay jar representing the ancient Mexican Rain-God Tlaloc,” are now [i.e., after his death] in possession of Anton van Dalen.

  the memorial service on November 1, 1999: The ceremony was held in the Charles Engelhard Court in the American Wing at 11:00 a.m. I am grateful to Sol and Judith Steinberg Bassow for copies of the invitation and program. In ST to AB, April 11, 1988, ST wrote of his pleasure in having the postcards enlarged: “(to a meter across)…and when you look at them you enter into that world, shortly before our birth—which is a more attractive and comprehensible era.”

  Hedda Sterne chose not to attend: In an interview, October 11, 2007, HS said she chose not to attend “for a variety of reasons.” After saying that she did not want to be a distraction or to draw attention to herself, she paused a long time before saying it would have been too emotionally difficult and she feared she would break down in public.

  Dr. Torsten Wiesel introduced the six speakers: Copies in SSF. A handwritten note on the IF transcript indicates that transcriptions were made by PC.

  “Each of us wished”: Saul Bellow, untitled remarks, reprinted as “Saul Steinberg,” Republic of Letters, no. 7, November 7, 1999; four untitled pages of Bellow’s remarks are in the James Atlas papers, University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center, Box 4, folder titled “Marbles,” with portions of what became the article in The Republic of Letters. I am grateful to James Atlas for permission to read them, and to Julia Gardner, Reference and instruction librarian, for her prompt attention to my request.

  “the most biting satire”: Leo Steinberg, “Remembering Saul,” November 1, 1999.

  “We carry a curse”: Norman Manea, “Memorial: Saul Steinberg.”

  “visionary intellectual satirist”: John Hollander, untitled remarks, later incorporated into “Saul Steinberg, 1914–1999,” read at the American Academy of Arts dinner meeting, November 10, 1999, published as “Memorial Tribute to Saul Steinberg,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters no. 50, 2nd series (2000): 101–6.

  Mary Frank came next: Mary Frank, interview, January 25, 2009; quotations taken from her untitled remarks transcribed from a tape by PC, SSF.

  “a marvel in nature”: IF, “Eulogy,” reprinted as “Eulogy for Saul Steinberg,” McSweeney’s no. 6 (2001): 29–32. HS’s remark about “reality” is also on Tape 4, September 26, 2005, “Conversations with Claire Nivola,” and was repeated throughout HS’s interviews with DB.

  “the greatest artist to be associated”: Adam Gopnik, untitled essay to accompany “Sketchbook by Saul Steinberg,” cover and pp. 54–57, TNY, May 24, 1999.

  The Italian newspaper: La Repubblica, May 14, 1999, copy in YCAL, Box 88, “Obituaries” folder. One of the articles, “Quando era inamorato di Gadda,” was about Steinberg’s particular enjoyment of Gadda’s fictions because he wrote in the Milanese dialect, which for ST was “the language of love.” In ST to AB, April 11, 1988, ST described the pleasure of reading Gadda’s Milanese dialect: “I understand it better than I would have expected, as long as I read it out loud.”

  In France, Libération also: “Culture: ‘Steinberg coupe sa ligne de vie’; ‘le dessinateur et mort mercredi a New York’; ‘il faudrait inventer un cenotaphe special pour Saul Steinberg,’ ” Libération, May 16 and 17, 1999; unsigned obituary, “Saul Steinberg,” Le Monde, May 18, 1999. Copies of both in YCAL, Box 88, “Obituaries” folder.

  Hilton Kramer praised Steinberg: Hilton Kramer, “Farewell, Saul Steinberg, a Mordant Comic Artist,” New York Observer, May 23, 1999. Sheila Schwartz provided the example of H. W. Janson’s History of Art (New York: Abrams, 1991), where ST is not in the index until the sixth edition and even then is discussed only briefly in an introductory section, “Looking at Art,” where a 1960 TNY drawing is used along with three other cartoons by pure cartoonists to make a general point about the creative process; his work is not considered in the actual history of art text that begins in the next chapter. See S:I, p. 20 and n. 10, for further examples.

  “epic doodler”: Sarah Boxer, “Saul Steinberg, Epic Doodler, Dies at 84,” New York Times, May 13, 1999, pp. 1, B10, copy in YCAL, Box 88, “Obituaries” folder.

  “in-between status”: Michael Kimmelman, “Art in Review: Saul Steinberg,” New York Times, October 22, 1999; in conjunction with exhibitions at Pace Wildenstein Gallery and Adam Baumgold Fine Art Gallery.

  “He was neither cartoonist nor painter”: Franklin Foer (with Angie Cannon), “A Great View of the World: Saying Goodbye to Saul Steinberg,” U.S. News & World Report, May 24, 1999, p. 65; copy provided by Judith Steinberg Bassow.

  “the man who did that poster”: Among the many obituaries that discuss “that poster” are Robert Hughes, “Fine, Indecipherable Flourishes,” Time, May 24, 1999; Elaine Woo, “Saul Steinberg: Artist Best Known for Covers and Cartoons in The New Yorker,” Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1999; “Saul Steinberg,” The Art N
ewspaper: In Memoriam, June 1999, copy in SSF archives; Martin Plimmer, “Obituary: Saul Steinberg,” Independent (London), May 18, 1999; Foer with Cannon, “A Great View of the World.”

  “the most iconic image”: Peter Plagens, “Have Pen, Will Amuse,” Newsweek, May 24, 1999, copy in YCAL, Box 88, “Obituaries” folder.

  “Steinberg’s most famous composition”: Hughes, “Saul Steinberg,” in Nothing If Not Critical, p. 259; Jean Lemaire, “An Appreciation,” Loria Collection, p. 10.

  The question proliferated: The exhibition itinerary listed in the book is as follows: Morgan Library and Museum, New York, November 30, 2006–March 4, 2007; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., April 6–June 24, 2007; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 30–September 20, 2007; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, November 2, 2007–February 24, 2008. The publication (cited throughout this book) is Joel Smith, Saul Steinberg: Illuminations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).

  “fundamental questions”: Front flap copy, S:I. Smith wrote the jacket copy, which he discusses more fully in the introduction, p. 20.

  “Seven years after his death”: Charles Simic, “Steinberg’s Bazaar,” S:I, p. 17.