Chapter thirty: I have to move

“I have to move”: ST to AB, September 6, 1965, SSF.

He did nothing about renewing his lease: NYU to ST, December 20, 1963; July 15, 1964; August 24, 1964; YCAL, Box 17.

They flew home via Puerto Rico: ST, 1965 date book, YCAL, Box 3.

Before they left, Steinberg had mailed: ST, January 1965, datebook, notation to complete the drawings he sent to Maeght on November 11, 1964, YCAL, Box 3; ST to Aimé Maeght, November 12, 1964, copy at SSF.

It was quickly apparent: Quotes are from ST to Maeght, November 12, 1964. According to SSF, ST allegedly sent 33 photos but only 22 were used. SSF dates their beginning to 1959, with most of those published in 1961–62. The entire series can be viewed at http://www.magnumphotos.com by searching the terms “Inge Morath” and “Saul Steinberg.”

Even there, progress was hampered: ST to Aimé Maeght, March 12, 1965, copy at SSF: “This has to be a very fine book.”

he wanted Maeght to ask: ST to Aimé Maeght, September 13, 1965, SSF (my translation).

“celebrities who wrote crap”: ST used the word conneries, which can be translated as stupidity or nonsense, but because it is not used in polite company, it usually deserves the harsher, slangier translation.

Sartre and Nabokov both refused: Beckett sent a polite letter saying that he had no competence to interpret Steinberg’s work and could not risk serving badly an artist he much admired; Jacques Dupin to ST, January 3, 1966, YCAL, Box 15 (my translation).

To soften the blow: ST to Aimé Maeght, October 6, 1965, copy in SSF (my translation); correspondence in YCAL, Box 15, between Lindey, Maeght, and Robert Delpire, who wanted to make a documentary film about ST. Maeght said he wanted to publish the book under his own name and refused Delpire’s offer to publish.

In Paris he met Jean Folon: Correspondence between ST and Folon pertaining to this and other projects Folon wished to pursue is in YCAL, Boxes 8, 15, and 16, among others.

whose writing he admired: Italo Calvino, “La Plume la Première Personne,” Derrière le Miroir no. 224 (May 1977).

On an impulse, he flew: ST to Aimé Maeght, March 12, 1965, copy at SSF. ST wrote that he spoke to Hamish Hamilton in London and Harper in New York and both were interested, and he was sure that Rowohlt in Germany and Feltrinelli in Italy would also want the book.

“milk the [paper’s] exchequer”: Michael Davie to ST, December 8, 1964, and February 26, 1965, YCAL, Box 15. One of Cynthia Nolan’s earliest letters to ST is dated August 1950, YCAL, Box 5.

He was Gigi’s witness: SS to ST, February 20, 1965, YCAL, Box 109.

Off he went to Florida: ST, 1965 datebook, YCAL, Box 3.

It irritated him: Jeanne-Claude and Christo, interview, August 9, 2007.

Steinberg liked even more: ST, notes from conversation with Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s biographer, Bert Chernow, n.d., YCAL, Box 123. Published in Chernow, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, pp. 47–48.

Priscilla Morgan usually had eight: Priscilla Morgan, interview, July 2008. At one of her dinners where ST was not the center of attention, he repeated a version—again to Jeanne-Claude and Christo—of what he had said in their home. Seated silently in an armchair in Morgan’s apartment, he said he might as well go home because “everyone is talking and no one is listening to me.”

“more than enjoyable”: Jean Stein, interview, March 8, 2009.

“Conversation seemed to make him awkward”: Bellow, remarks delivered at Steinberg’s memorial service, copy in SSF and also in James Atlas’s papers at the University of Chicago.

For the next several months: ST liked the acerbic Spark so much that he called on her frequently when he was in Rome. She sent a telegram to ST, care of Maeght, on February 25, 1966, asking if he wanted to visit her at the Silvretta Hotel, Klosters, Switzerland; YCAL, Box 15.

In short, he was out: Often, if the evening was particularly memorable, he also made a drawing and sent it to the hostess.

She was so insistant that LSD: The first mention of mescaline is in June 1955, in ST, datebook, YCAL, Box 3. Smith, S:I, p. 240, n. 134, posits that ST might have received the drug from Henri Michaux, who was a proponent of mescaline. I found no direct evidence to support this, nor did I find any concrete information about his supplier.

“They wanted to see”: ST, typescript of interview with Adam Gopnik, filed as “Interview” in YCAL, Box 67. The conversation took place in 1993, and ST mistakenly said he took the LSD “in Connecticut.”

“something very important”: ST to AB, July 12, 1965, SSF.

“certain differences and suspicions”: ST to AB, September 6, 1965, SSF.

Gigi had never liked Greenwich Village: ST, 1965 datebook, YCAL, Box 3; SS, “Synopsis: My Life in America,” entry for September 23, 1965, YCAL, Box 108.

Most of her lovers still wanted: SS, correspondence in YCAL, Box 109.

Bill de Kooning gave him: Appraisers for the Pace Gallery gave de Kooning’s drawing a value of $400,000 sometime in the 1980s; YCAL, Box 39.

“well being doesn’t count”: ST to AB, October 6, 1965, SSF.

“look around for something”: George Plimpton to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 15. The Byron Gallery, New York, thanked him for providing “original work for a poster,” along with such artists as (among others) Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Richard Lindner, Louise Nevelson, and Andy Warhol; YCAL, Box 15.

He did, however, manage to contribute: ST donated the drawing as a prize for a New Year’s Eve benefit for Chamber Music in the Circle, Bleecker Street, NY, YCAL, Box 15. Schneider’s letter is in YCAL, Box 61.

Steinberg was never one to brood over: HS, interview, October 11, 2007: “I always had the urge to share with him anything I read that mattered to me. ST used to laugh and say I always had to give the citation for anyone I quoted.”

Hedda always carried: The notebooks and individual sheets of paper from them are found throughout the YCAL boxes but are not otherwise identified.

Dore Ashton was “shocked”: Dore Ashton, interviews, January 20, 2009, and February 22, 2010; Dore Ashton to ST, “Wednesday,” YCAL, Box 5.

As he doodled: ST, 1965 datebook, YCAL, Box 3; ST, “Notes on Writing,” YCAL, Box 15.

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