Chapter twenty-eight: the terrible curse of the consciousness of fame

“Impossible to recount things”: ST to AB, February 19, 1964.

“I’m not working”: ST to AB, June 17, 1963.

“absolute happiness”: ST to AB, July 20, 1963.

And he did something else he disliked: SS, “My Life in Postcards,” YCAL, Box 110.

Shortly after, he learned that: Gray & Gray, CPAs, to ST, July 16, 1963, YCAL, Box 17.

By the autumn, his money worries: TNY, May 25 and October 12, 1963.

Steinberg was further delighted: Herbert Mitgang to ST, August 20, 1962, YCAL, Box 17. A year later ST was still in correspondence with Mitgang, trying to satisfy his request for a drawing; ST, “List of things to do,” YCAL, Box 17, Folder “Correspondence 1963.”

Life and Time had infringed: Alexander Lindey to ST, September 23, 1963.

“I don’t quite belong in the art”: Quoted in WMAA, p. 10; on p. 13, Rosenberg comments that “the advantage of being a borderline artist is that it allows the decision to be put off indefinitely.”

He believed such honors: Jean Stein (vanden Heuvel), “From the Hand and Mouth of Steinberg,” Life, December 10, 1965, p. 60. See also WMAA, p. 29: “This monumentalization of people, this freezing of life, is the terrible curse of consciousness of fame.”

To accept would have meant: Harold C. Schonberg, “Artist Behind the Steinbergian Mask,” New York Times, November 13, 1966, pp. 48–51, 162–69.

“another glossy portrait”: Editor, Celebrity Register, to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 17, Folder “Correspondence, 1963.” The photo used in the first issue was a publicity shot taken by a professional photographer, and ST did not send the informal one the editor requested.

“strange, silent world”: Alexey Brodovitch, Portfolio no. 1 (Winter 1950). The magazine featured a brief identification of seven full pages of ST’s cartoons.

“a dialogue between a No. 5”: Stein, “A Cartoonist Talks About Himself.” The quotations here are taken from Stein’s “Notes on an interview with ST,” YCAL, Box 38. They do not appear in the published version of the article in Life, published on December 10, 1965.

“obsessed with the question mark”: Jean Stein (vanden Heuvel), “Notes on an interview with Saul Steinberg,” typescript, YCAL, Box 38. There are several edited versions of her interviews and conversations with ST in YCAL, Box 69; internal evidence suggests they were conducted throughout 1965.

He depicted it lying in bed: The 5 and the question mark in bed appeared originally in Du Atlantis 26 (August 19, 1960): 602 and is reproduced in S:I, p. 153; the 5 as a tuba is in Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 117; the 5 as a cupboard is a TNY cover, July 18, 1970.

“so simple—I even give hints”: Glueck, “The Artist Speaks,” p. 112.

“Oh, that’s easy”: From the unedited transcript of Glueck’s interview for “The Artist Speaks”; Anne Hollander, interview, December 5, 2009. ST said much the same about the number 4 in a conversation with Ann Birstein, who asked about his July 5, 1969, TNY cover, in which a 4 is shooting skyward from a firecracker. When she asked, “What’s going on here?” he replied, “Oh, Ann, you can never trust a 4”; Ann Birstein, interview, December 10, 2009.

“a problem, a weakness”: Stein, “Notes on an interview with Saul Steinberg,” YCAL, Box 38.

“the serious core”: Smith, “Thought and Spoken,” Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 100.

Much of the fan mail: Typical is a letter from the writer Judith Thurman, signed as Judith Ann Thurman, a high school senior in Flushing, New York, YCAL, Box 17.

One group thought it was: YCAL, Box 17, folder of fan mail for 1963.

“make people jittery”: Glueck, unedited transcript of interview, pp. 110–17.

“get a gig for a workshop”: Lee Hall, Elaine & Bill: Portrait of a Marriage (New York: Cooper Square, 1993), p. 235.

“Call Elaine about museum”: Information that follows is from this list, YCAL, Box 17.

“a fresh eye”: Glueck, unedited transcript of interview.

He donated drawings as well as money: Evidence can be found throughout his YCAL archives, but in this instance I cite YCAL, Box 17, for his activity in 1963, before and after the Kennedy assassination.

He wanted to talk about this: HS to ST, October 8, 1963, YCAL, microfilm letters.

He accomplished everything he wanted to do: Itinerary, YCAL, Box 3, Folder 1964–65.

“mild pornography”: HS to ST, December 31, 1963, YCAL, microfilm letters.

She joked that she would steal: HS to ST, May 1964, YCAL, microfilm letters. She was asking if he wanted her to keep looking, as she had not yet found one she thought suitable.

In a gossipy letter to Saul: HS to ST, July 9 [1964], YCAL, microfilm letters, reel 144–45.

In this instance, she hoped it would lessen: HS to ST, December 31, 1963, YCAL, microfilm letters.

On the spur of the moment: The itinerary that follows is from YCAL, Box 3, Folder 1964–65.

They inspired him to visit: Angelini was in charge of the UNESCO restoration of a World Heritage site. ST speaks of “several visits” to Ethopia in Glueck, unedited transcript of interview. He writes of the first in the itinerary in YCAL, Box 3, and of the second in a letter to AB, March 28, 1970, SSF, where he wrote that the second visit with Angelini to Lalibela “was excellent and leaves a fine memory.” He repeated that it was “especially beautiful for its location, the magical plateau.”

“a terrific plateau”: Glueck, unedited transcript of interview.

He spent the next day: ST, 1964 datebook, YCAL, Box 3.

“I’m still confused”: ST to AB, February 19, 1964.

He made another list: List on the back of a bill from Alexander Lindey, January 31, 1964, YCAL, Box 17.

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