ALS on the Publication of Robert Frank’s Seminal Work “The Americans”

While studying architecture in Italy, Steinberg began his career as a cartoonist, contributing to European publications and issuing his first New Yorker drawing in 1941 while waiting for a visa to enter the U.S. His subsequent contributions to The New Yorker included hundreds of drawings and 85 covers executed in an unmistakable style that became synonymous with the publication. Although Steinberg is best known for his magazine illustration and his nearly 60-year association with The New Yorker, he worked in a variety of media, including collage and murals.

In 1957, Steinberg was invited to create a mural in the American Pavilion for the 1958 Brussels Expo – the first world’s fair since 1937. His montage, entitled The Americans, used “brown-paper cutouts, wallpaper fragments, handmade paper, newspaper comics, and other pieces in various shapes and hues, [to create] a stunning, inventive panorama of America, from small-town Main Street to big-city cocktail party. Brimming with visual puns, semi-abstractions, distorted figures, and modernist white space, The Americans represented Steinberg’s effort at cultural diplomacy,” (“America, the Great Colossal Collage: Saul Steinberg’s Forgotten Masterpiece,” Artnews.com, Cembalest). Although critics lauded the pavilion itself, Steinberg’s “nuanced sensibility didn’t mesh with the populist idea of great American art at that moment, and the mural didn’t make much of a splash. Some reviewers took potshots at The Americans; most ignored it completely… Steinberg’s art was left out of the Official United States Guidebook,” (ibid.). The April 1959 issue of the Swiss art magazine, “Du,” featured Steinberg’s mural “The Americans.”

Saul Steinberg, The Americans

Steinberg’s mural undoubtedly contributed to Robert Delpire’s decision to commission him to create an illustration for the cover of Robert Frank’s seminal photography book Les Americains, published in France in 1958. The American edition, which appeared the following year, was revised to remove most accompany text (by such authors and Simone de Beauvoir, William Faulkner, Henry Miller, and John Steinbeck) and did not include Steinberg’s artwork, possibly the “book problem” alluded to in our letter. Canfield and Bradley are likely editors at the Grove Press which published the American edition of The Americans in 1959.

Written on recto and verso of a single sheet and folded into thirds. In very fine condition.