Chapter thirty-five: up to my nose in trouble

“All’s well here”: ST to AB, May 4, 1974, SSF.

“The show, yes, it went well”: ST to AB, March 10, 1973, SSF.

“utterly captivated”: Philip Guston to ST, February 4, 1973, YCAL, Box 102.

“the boring problems”: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

He found what he wanted: ST to AB, June 28, 1973, SSF. He bought the apartment on May 31, 1973, from Edgar and Joan P. Stillman, for a total cost of $71,500. He did not get a mortgage but paid them $41,500 cash and they held a promissory note for $30,000. Documentation in YCAL, Box 39.

“a talented, charming, reliable man”: Letters dated April 1973. Bodian was a partner in the CPA firm of Breiner & Bodian; YCAL, Box 103. In a legal document that “settled the rights and interests” of ST and HS, December 19, 1989, YCAL, Box 71, ST’s net worth had risen to $4,669,000.

It resembled all too closely: Documents and photocopies of most of his memberships and awards, YCAL, Box 32.

His dues were in arrears: ST became a member in 1965, nominated by Eric Larrabee, Sidney Simon, and Brendan Gill. He resigned on October 19, 1975, because he never used the club’s facilities. I am grateful to Dr. Russell Flinchum, archivist of the Century Association, for documentation concerning ST’s membership.

“Everyone … looked fabulous”: “Suzy,” New York Daily News, March 20, 1974, YCAL, Box 32.

The most oft-repeated story: Among the many people who told versions of these stories in interviews were HS, AB, Vita Peterson, Ruth Nivola, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. I had conversations with others who were guests on these occasions and claimed to have witnessed them firsthand but did not wish to be cited.

He hired the architect: Various documents concerning the renovation are in YCAL, Box 73. Floor plans for alterations, May 1978, are in YCAL, Box 32. PC, e-mail, July 20, 2010, provided details of the layout. In his veiled datebook notations, “Ala” had been appearing for the better part of the previous decade.

He ended up living through: ST to AB, June 28, 1973; Anton van Dalen, interview, October 5, 2007.

Finally, everything was settled and approved: ST to AB, November 12, 1973, SSF.

The two housing decisions were momentous: ST to AB, December 3, 1973, SSF.

He thought the addition dwarfed: ST to AB, February 1, 1974, SSF.

“temporary … improvised”: ST to AB, June 12, 1974, SSF.

“fucking patria”: ST wrote this in a diary entry on his seventy-seventh birthday, June 15, 1997, YCAL, Box 75. Immediately after, he wrote: “Unfortunately all my landscapes, smells, sounds, tastes, are there. Houses, courtyards, sky, mountain, snow.”

He wondered if his disposition: ST to AB, September 25, 1972, SSF.

“in harmony for the moment”: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

“a nightmare”: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

“depressing, disaster”: ST to AB, September 8, 1973, SSF.

“biting its own tail”: Edith Schloss, “Around the European Galleries,” International Herald-Tribune, October 27–28, 1973.

Steinberg had occasionally used de Bloe: After de Bloe bought several watercolors from the exhibition, Steinberg instructed him to send the $4,000 payment directly to Aldo, who was to keep $3,000 and send the remaining $1,000 to Ada. AB thanks ST, December 7, 1973, YCAL, Box 102, for money that brought tranquillity to a stressful financial period.

Although the Internal Revenue Service: Serge de Bloe to ST, December 18, 1973, YCAL, Box 102. He tells ST he sent the check per ST’s instructions. Letters from the IRS and ST’s tax accountants in YCAL, Box 101, verify that he was being audited, that he was late in paying previous years’ taxes, and that he had applied for an extension of the April 15, 1973, deadline. The amounts ST contributed often exceeded the amount permitted as gifts.

Until now he had never volunteered: In an undated letter in YCAL, Box 101, Ada asks ST where the television he promised to send her is.

“doing a good or bad thing”: ST to AB, December 3, 1973, SSF.

Mary McCarthy came: McCarthy thanked him for the dance in a letter, October 19, 1973, YCAL, Box 102. Information that follows until noted otherwise is from this letter.

He sent almost the entire amount: Mary McCarthy to ST, November 7, 1973, to thank him for the money, and again on December 12, 1973, to tell him of progress made; YCAL, Box 102.

He was generous with his work: Marten Bogner bought the McGovern-Shriver painting; Frances O’Brien, March 28, 1972, thanked ST on behalf of Spanish refugees. Both in YCAL, Box 102. On July 13, 1975, O’Brien wrote again to thank ST for a second contribution, an original four-color print; YCAL, Box 103.

Judith Hope, who was running for reelection: On June 18, 1985, Judith Hope wrote to tell ST that she wanted him to hear from her first that she was withdrawing from the campaign; YCAL, Box 103.

He gave permission: The work was from the May 25, 1968, issue, pp. 36–37, 40–41; the anthology was published by Dell.

Shortly after, the group asked him: National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 102; letter confirming his promise to create “only the front cover,” May 8, 1975.

But when the National Lawyers Guild: The first letter is undated, the second is February 26, 1974, YCAL, Box 103.

It was not a politically correct thing to do: Letter of invitation, April 4, 1972, YCAL, Box 102.

His work had always been of interest: Agarwal, “Steinberg’s Treatment of the Theme of the Artist,” with several interviews beginning December 8, 1972, YCAL, Box 78.1; Ralph Neubeck, “A Biographical Critique of Steinberg’s Work with Particular Emphasis on Its Relationship to the American Culture and Sense of Humor, with Particular Emphasis on the Humorous Content,” PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, Department of American Studies, 1972; Ralph Neubeck to ST, January 20 and March 24, 1972, YCAL, Box 102.

the cartoonist Garry Trudeau: Garry Trudeau to ST, n.d., YCAL, Box 102.

Steinberg’s work even penetrated the Romanian Iron Curtain: Nick Luddington of Associated Press to ST, October 21, 1974, YCAL, Box 103; Matty Aslan to ST, Bucharest, 2 ionie, 1974, YCAL, Box 103. To prevent government intervention, Luddington asked ST to send any replies to Aslan through him, and a brief exchange ensued between them. Examples of Rosa Steinberg’s embroidery, including ST’s bib from his 1914 birth, with his name in pink thread in chain stitch on ecru lace, are in YCAL, Box 71.

He had met Susan Sontag: According to the appeal, Sontag had a radical mastectomy in October 1975 and had no medical insurance to pay for it or money to support her son, David Rieff.

He provided the jacket drawing: Hollander was published by Oxford University Press; YCAL, Box 103.

When Nora Ephron: Nora Ephron to ST, March 26, 1975, YCAL, Box 103.

Most recently he and Nabokov had disagreed: ST wrote to AB, March 5, 1975, giving hints of his conversation with Nabokov about a biography of Courbet. Of the biography, ST wrote: “Writers of biographies understand only other writers (as shown in diaries, letters, etc.).” Of Courbet: “Poor Courbet. When he wrote a letter he showed only his worst. His originality or uniqueness was involuntary, that of an animal that by some miracle painted, with naturally the great refinement and precision of beasts.”

“maybe it could be done”: ST to AB, February 1 and 27, 1974, SSF.

gave great care to nominating: An example of his political discretion came when he wanted to nominate Christo: ST enlisted George Rickey to propose Christo, and he and Isamu Noguchi seconded. He and Saul Bellow worked to secure William Gaddis’s membership. YCAL, Box 94.

Awards and accolades from other institutions: A list of ST’s honorary degrees in SSF lists the following: Lawrence College, 1962; Harvard, 1976; Philadelphia College of Art, 1977; New York University, 1978; Royal College of Art, 1988; Yale, 1989. A photocopy without date, in Latin, is from “Moderamini Academiae Regiae Artium Nobilium in Urbe Hagana,” which Sheila Schwartz believes is from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. In 1983 ST was nominated for election to the Accademia Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, but SSF has no record that he was elected or that he accepted. A partial list of other honors include Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1966; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1968; Benjamin Franklin Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, London, 1969; Die Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, 1972; National Institute of Arts and Letters, Gold Medal for Eminence in Graphic Art, 1974; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, medal for drawing, 1976; AIA Medal, the American Institute of Architects, May 1976; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellow, 1978; [New York City] Mayor’s Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, 1983.

“impossible to witness”: ST to Mrs. G. Walter Zahn and Richard Seyffert, October 31, 1976, YCAL, Box 103.

Philip Johnson was the presenter: Philip Johnson Papers, I.109, Museum of Modern Art Archives, NY; published in Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 1975, p. 21; copy in YCAL, Box 103.

He was alarmed when one of the women: ST to AB, May 4, 1974, SSF. The woman was known only as Erika.

“What does this sadness mean?”: ST to AB, June 12, 1974, SSF.

He kept in touch with Chiaromonte’s widow: Miriam Chiaramonte, articles and obituaries in YCAL, Box 102. In Box 22, letter of July 26, 1977, she thanks ST for signing a protest letter for Polish dissidents: “It’s fine that you gave your name.”

His brother-in-law, Rica Roman: ST to AB, February 27, 1974, SSF.

Steinberg gave her the happy news: ST to Lica Roman, May 14, 1975, YCAL, Box 22.

He wondered if her low spirits: ST to AB, May 24, 1975, SSF.

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