Chapter five: the place to go

at Viale Lombardia 21: Conflicting documents give several addresses for ST’s first residence in Milan. In “Handwritten List of Addresses,” YCAL, Box 2, he wrote Ampero, but his official Politecnico documents give it as Ampère 46. Via della Sila appears to be the first fairly permanent room. He wrote Via [but the correct name is Viale] Lombardia for the room they moved into in early 1933. In a letter from Leventer, February 7, 1960 (YCAL, Box 5, Romanian letters, Folder “Correspondence chiefly 1960”), he writes of “the room and the terrace on Via Lombardia 21.” He also refers to “our room” there in a letter of December 30, 1959 (YCAL, Box 5, Romanian letters, Folder “Correspondence, 1959–60”). From this point on in the Romanian Letters, ST usually writes Leventer’s name as “Leventi.” I shall do the same.

a tiny balcony just big enough: This is the room ST drew and titled “Milano—My Room—Bar del Grillo, 1937,” Ink, 9 x 113/8 in., YCAL, Box 20, “Photos.”

the testa di cavallo: Bruno Leventi to ST, December 30, 1959, and November 27, 1956, YCAL, Boxes 14 and 8.

he was officially enrolled: YCAL, Box 73, folder “SS Biography.”

“skinny little fellow”: AB, interview, Milan, June 19, 2007.

a rich correspondence: AB edited the correspondence, which was published in Italian as Lettere a Aldo Buzzi, 1945–1999 (Milan: Adelphi, 2002). The English translation of the published texts and summaries of the portions excised and unpublished were prepared for SSF by John Shepley (through 1978) and James Marcus (1979–99); typescript at SSF. As of 2012, the English translation remains unpublished.

Tommaso Buzzi’s distinguished reputation: AB, interview, June 19, 2007. Tommaso Buzzi (1900–81) is regarded as one of the most important and interesting Italian designers of the twentieth century. He worked mostly in furniture and the applied arts and is probably best known today for the Citta Buzziana, a former convent that he converted into an “ideal city,” and for his “autobiography on stone.” Fantasy, irreverence, and the use of humanistic, literary, and classical quotations are found throughout his work. See also T. Buzzi, Lettere Pensieri Appunti 1937–1979 (Milan: Silvana, 2000).

“gigantic portions”: ST to AB, November 26, 1992.

“terrible Jewish-Romanian cuisine”: ST, undated spiral notebook in his handwriting, YCAL, Box 69. This entry is entitled “Hunger.”

the first commission of Ernesto Rogers: It was the first commission for the firm BBPR, founded in 1932 by Ernesto Rogers, Gian Luigi Banfi, Ludovico Belgiojoso, and Enrico Peressutti, all of whom became ST’s friends at a later time. Sources consulted include Edoardo Persico, “Un bar a Milano,” Casabella, January 1933, reprinted in Enzio Bonfanti and Marco Porta, Città, museo e architettura. Il gruppo BBPR nella cultura architettonica italiana, 1932–70 (Florence: Vallecchi, 1973). Francesca Pellicciari also cites the Persico article in “Critic Without Words: Saul Steinberg e l’architettura,” thesis, Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, 2004–5.

iconic talisman: ST to AB, April 6, 1987.

“the best kind of propaganda”: Persico, “Un bar a Milano,” p. A7.

“the face of a Roman senator”: ST to AB, April 6, 1987.

the most common slang word: The Dizionario Garzanti and James Marcus, who translated the unpublished ST/AB letters into English, both agree that grillo means cricket and grilletto means trigger.

“laboratory for modernity”: Hubert Lempereur, “Saul Steinberg: Une Vie Dans Les Lignes,” AMC: Le Moniteur Architecture, September 2008, p. 97.

Steinberg always insisted: Although the term accurately describes his student years, ST used it only once, when he drew his “Autogeography” in 1966 (published posthumously in TNY, February 28, 2005, as an illustration for Roger Angell’s “Map of Saul,” pp. 56–57. This drawing appears also in Joel Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker (New York: Abrams, 2005), pp. 220–21, and partially in The Inspector. Francesca Pellicciari also used the term in Critic Without Words, p. 25.

“a particular neighborhood”: R & S, p. 25.

Then it was back to the Grillo: AB, interview, June 19, 2007.

Saul insisted that the strongest memory: R & S, p. 25.

all things witty: ST, spiral notebook, n.d., YCAL, Box 69.

the “abundance” of women: ST to AB, May 24, 1996.

“symbol of reality”: ST, spiral notebook, n.d., YCAL, Box 69.

“the first class noticer”: Roger Angell, interview, May 6, 1908.

Steinberg’s contention that he was always solitary: AB supported this contention, interview, June 19, 2007.

“the terrace of our villa”: Bruno Leventi to ST, November 27, 1956, Bucharest, in Romanian letters, YCAL. ST wrote: “I told [Lica] about our parties with del Castro and Ciucu.” The same was true in the years when ST lived at Via Pascoli 64, in the room above the Bar del Grillo.

“attached directly to his hand”: AB, interview, June 19, 2007.

one of his favorite destinations: San Lorenzo is reproduced in S:I, fig. 11; “Galleria di Milano” is dated 1951 and reproduced in WMAA, p. 78.

His sole problem with women: Gabriella Befani Canfield, interview, January 12, 2009; Sabra Loomis, telephone conversation, January 19, 2009; AB, interview, June 19, 2007; HS, telephone conversation, December 12, 2007.

“chief interest”: R & S, p. 25.

“marvelous training”: WMAA, p. 235.

“cribbed Bauhaus”: Joel Smith, “Illuminations, or The Dog in the Postcard,” S:I, p. 26.

“the influence of Cubism”: WMAA, p. 235.

Students often postponed: MTL, “Descent from Paradise,” p. 329.

“places that don’t belong”: R & S, p. 41. Pellicciari, “Indige Delle Immagini,” in Critic Without Words, has a partial list of some of these drawings exemplified by “Milano via Pascoli in 1936, From Memory, 1974.” Also SSF 5; S:I, cat. 70 and n. 157; MTL, “Descent from Paradise,” p. 325 and figs. 6–8.

which brought a “revelation”: AB to DB, June 7, 2008.

what he called “documentary” drawings: This was AB’s word for the specialized internal drawings of a building, such as plumbing, heating, and electrical circuits. “Now most of this work is done on the computer but it was very useful for ST, especially during the journeys to Rome and Ferrara [field trips that students took].” AB, interview, June 7, 2008.

Straight walls appear slanted and off-kilter: This is apparent in, for example, San Lorenzo (ca. 1935), ink over pencil, S:I, p. 26; Milano—My Room—Bar del Grillo, 1937, ink on paper, YCAL, 3641, S:I, p. 252. Of his 1951 drawing of the Galleria di Milano done in similar style, WMAA, p. 78, Bernard Rudofsky commented that it “bears witness to both [ST’s] formation as an architect and his understanding of the natural tendencies of Italians,” in Streets for People: A Primer for Americans (New York: Doubleday, 1969). Roland Barthes saw this same drawing as fitting “the same definition as a labyrinth … a small autarchic universe,” in “All Except You, Saul Steinberg,” Scritti (Turin: Einaudi, 1976).

“something about something else”: R & S, p. 71.

Arturo Danusso: Chimica generale ed applicata ai materiali costruzioni, Politecnico di Milano, folder ST and Registro.

the confidence to be a snob: Ivan Chermayeff, interview, March 5, 2009.

“a very, very precise observer”: Ibid.

He usually traveled by ships: This information is from ST’s folder with “extra chronologies” related to those he prepared for the WMAA 1978 retrospective, YCAL, Box 38. It is also one of the “Outtakes” from R & S, titled “Bucharest-Milan,” YCAL, Box 38, and SSF.

“pink, green, and blue box”: ST to Moritz and Rosa Steinberg, Milan, February 19, 1940, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 12; AB, “L’architetto steinberg,” Domus, no. 214, October 1946, p. 20.

“just sort of appeared”: AB, interview, June 19, 2007, insisted that this happened during the autumn of 1936, but in a letter dated October 15, 1941, YCAL, Box 12, “Wartime Letters from Ada,” she reminds ST of the “four years” they spent together, which would thus make early 1937 more likely.

“tall, thin, angular”: AB’s description differs from the photographs of Ada, all of which show a short, plump, and busty woman.

Ada remained a major presence: Information is from Loredana Masperi, director of the Casa Prina home in Erba, Como, Italy. YCAL documents show that ST paid $1,000 each month to the Bank of Como for her care there from the date she entered, February 2, 1990, until her death on January 16, 1997, with AB acting as executor and overseer.

“mystery to the very end”: AB, interview, June 19, 2007, described how he and his wife took several trips with Ada throughout their lives and how Bianca tried in vain to get Ada to talk about herself. Bianca Lattuada never divorced her husband, but as she and AB, who were together for many years, always referred to each other as husband and wife, I pay them the courtesy here.

“the little red-haired girl”: Ada to ST, Milano, November 12, 1941, YCAL, Box 12, “Wartime Letters from Ada.”

in this case she was so angry: Ada to ST, “Mercoledi, May 21,” YCAL, Box 12, “Wartime Letters from Ada.”

asking Saul to meet her: Ada to ST, “Varazze 21–7,” YCAL, Box 32. In a letter of October 10, 1941, she reminds him of the good times they had in Varazze, despite having to hide their relationship from friends who happened to be there at the same time. In YCAL, Box 12, “Wartime Letters From Ada.” These letters are uncharacteristically dated, while most of her correspondence is not, so that I have had to use internal evidence to supply dates in other references.

What she didn’t tell him: In one of the undated “Wartime Letters,” YCAL, Box 12, Ada told ST that she had “known” him for forty-four years, but she had “been with Vincenzo Ongari” for fifty-five. In some of the letters that were cleared by the censor, she signs her name on the envelope simply “Ada.” In others she uses her maiden name, and in 1940 (deduced from internal evidence, because she does not write the year), she begins to use Ongari and to speak of he or him (never using his name, which she sometimes gives as Giovanni). Also she writes of Ongari as if ST knew for quite some time that she was married. A “Stato di famiglia originario” of the Comune di Erba, Provincia di Como, states that Signora Ada Cassola moved there with her husband from Milan on April 4, 1973, where his name is “Giovanni [no middle name given] Ongari.” He died in Erba on July 6, 1984. At her death she was listed as a widow. Carole Chiodo and Elisa Bruschini assisted me in acquiring these documents from the Municipality of Erba; other copies were provided by MTL to SSF.

Leventer got tired of listening: Information that follows is from BL to ST, November 27, 1956, Bucharest, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8.

newspaper called Bertoldo: To write about ST’s Bertoldo years, I have consulted the following: Piervaleriano Angelini, “L’attivita italiana di Saul Steinberg,” degree thesis, Universita di Pavia, 1981–82; Cinzia Mangini and Paola Pallottino, Bertoldo e I suoi illustratori (Nuoro: Glisso, 1994); Carlo Manzoni, Gli anni Verdi del bertoldo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1964); G. Mosca, “La conquista di Milano,” Corriere della Sera, June 30, 1969; G. Mosca, Non e ver che sia la morte (Milan: Rizzoli, 1980); G. Guareschi, Chi sogna nuovi gerani? Autobiografia (Milan: Rizzoli, 1993); Carlotta and Alberto Guareschi, Milano 1936–43: Guareschi e il Bertoldo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1994); Pellicciari, Critic Without Words; G. Soavi, Saul Steinberg: catalogo della mostra (Milan: Mario Tazzoli, 1973); Gli anni Trenta: catalogo della mostra (Milan: Mazzotta, 1982); C. Zavattini, Parliamo tanto di me (Milan: Bompiani, 1977); MTL, “Descent from Paradise”; Tullio Kezich, Federico Fellini: His Life and Work (New York: Taurus, 2007).

“I remember how stubborn you were”: BL to ST, November 27, 1956, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 8. BL appended a postscript saying, “I still keep the rare edition of Marc’Aurelio. ”

Guareschi was the managing editor: Shortly after he met ST, Guareschi became editor in chief of Bertoldo. He was known for his biting wit and anti-Fascist satire, but his name was also on some of the most anti-Semitic articles. After the war he became internationally famous for his tales of the fictional priest Don Camillo (in The Little World of Don Camillo, among others).

“a young man with a blond mustache”: Manzoni is probably the only person who remembered ST as blond; all others agree that his hair was dark brown, his mustache closer to black, and his eyes hazel tending toward brown.

“the young blond man”: Carlo Manzoni, Gli anni Verdi del Bertoldo (Milan: Rizzoli, 1964), p. 28.

“absurdity of the initial”: Mangini and Pallottino, Bertoldo e i suoi illustratori, p. 103.

“I only discovered”: Quoted in Pierre Baudson, Steinberg: The Americans, exhibition catalogue (Brussels: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1967), pp. 1–2.

In the cartoon titled “Barbe”: reproduced in Mangini and Pallottino, Bertoldo e i suoi illustratori, p. 95, fig. 138.

the first of more than two hundred drawings: The actual number has never been verified. MTL cites Angelini as having given an exact count, and Pellicciari also accepts it: “At least 204 cartoons in both Bertoldo and its supplement, Archibertoldo. ” MTL also writes that the number “may have been higher if the figure of ‘250 or more’…is correct.” The uncertainty arises after 1939, because some that were published without attribution may now be housed in the Guareschi Foundation archives or with private collectors. The Guareschi Foundation has prepared an appendix to Milano 1936–47: Guareschi e il Bertoldo, pp. 491–92, in which they count 54 drawings among their holdings. In ST to AB, July 23, 1947, Steinberg claimed “250 or more that I did in one year for Bertoldo. ”

“a public that almost immediately”: Mosca, “La conquista di Milano,” my translation. At the time Mosca wrote this, he was attempting to gloss over the paper’s acquiescent collaboration with the Fascist government, so the remark must be considered in that context. The novelist Italo Calvino wrote cartoon captions for a while, but it is not known if he provided any for ST’s drawings. They did not seem to know each other until Calvino wrote the essay “Drawing in the First Person,” Derrière le Miroir, no. 224, for ST’s 1977 exhibition at Galerie Maeght, Paris.

“fabulous graphics”: Attilio Bertolucci, Umoristi del Novecento (Milan: Garzanti, 1959), p. 12. Bertolucci collaborated with Cesare Zavattini (soon to be ST’s lifelong friend) on the Gazzetta di Parma.

“If Saul got money”: AB, interview, June 19, 2007.

“making money out of something”: Robert Hughes, Nothing If Not Critical, p. 262.

Steinberg still shared a room with Leventer: Perlmutter had quit his architectural studies, moved back to Bucharest briefly, and then returned to Milan in search of a job. In 1940 he fled to Lisbon and eventually moved to Australia.

“in wonder”: AB, interview, June 19, 2007.

Steinberg normally sat in a corner: Pellicciari, Critic Without Words, pp. 34–35, citing Angelini, “L’attivita italiana di Saul Steinberg,” p. 61, and Mangini and Pallottino, Bertoldo e i suoi illustratori, p. 96. Joel Smith touches upon this in S:I, pp. 26–27.

One of his most successful creations: See, for example, S:I, p. 26, fig. 12.

It marked the beginning: AB, cited in Pellicciari, Critic Without Words, p. 84, n. 13. AB repeated the anecdote to me (interview, June 19, 2007), insisting that it was “very important for any understanding of Saul.”

Flush with success: ST to AB, July 6, 1991.

“satirize attitudes and political mentalities”: Mangini and Pallottino, Bertoldo e i suoi illustratori, p. 178, n. 1. English translation by MTL.

Publications that specialized in humor: MTL, “Descent from Paradise,” particularly pp. 320–22.

“carried errors, bad taste, venial and mortal sins”: Oreste del Buono, Bertoldo 1936 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1993), introduction; also quoted in MTL, “Descent from Paradise,” pp. 321–22, n. 31.

“a terrible idea, blackmail”: Angelini, “L’attivita italiana di Saul Steinberg,” discusses this throughout; ST to AB, March 28, 1983.

He was able to evade: AB appended the following note to ST’s letter of April 19, 1985: “Once he established himself in New York and at The New Yorker, the flaws and limitations of Bertoldo became clear to him: even its prose struck him as elementary, although it had charmed those readers whom Steinberg, recalling his schooldays, referred to as matricole, freshmen. He asked me to delete the occasional Bertoldian reminiscences scattered throughout his letters.” However, AB retained a number of them and they are all negative, such as that of March 28, 1983, in which ST sympathizes with the recent suicide of a friend of AB’s, saying he has an “identical weakness” which he calls “the Bertoldo in me.”

When the publisher Alberto Mondadori: For a capsule history of Settebello (after 1939, Ecco-Settebello), see MTL, “Descent from Paradise,” pp. 320–21, n. 29.

“accomplish anything extraordinary”: Rosa Steinberg to Sali Marcovici, originally dated October 20, 1941, later changed by Iain Topliss to October 20, 1933, in Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 12.

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