Questions and Answers

As another year ends, I, as many of you, will exclaim “Another year? What a year!”

All years have their ups and downs and this one was no different.

Events on the world stage were as crazy and heart-breaking as ever .  And I often wonder as years like 1929 or 1941 or  1962 came to a end, whether the despair of events of those years overwhelmed the joys that must also have entered people’s lives.

Two major links to GertrudeandAlice left us this year: Julian Stein, Jr. and Robert Lescher.

Those of you who have been following my posts have been introduced to Julian, Gertrude’s cousin, through the excerpts that I’ve featured from his memoirs.  (There are more to follow in the new year, I promise.) Julian will be remembered for a long, long time by all of those who knew and loved him.

The unforgettable Julian Stein, Jr.

Robert Lescher was a major figure in the New York publishing scene for 60 years working with such writers as Robert Frost, MFK Fisher and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Literary mentor Robert Lescher

He traveled to Paris in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s to work with Alice on writing her memoir, WHAT IS REMEMBERED.

Alice had begun work on the book with Max White, whom Gertrude had praised as one of America’s young, up-and-coming writers in the late 1940s. For a number of months he met with Alice at rue Christine, taking notes as she related her life with Gertrude to him.

Portrait of Max White by Alice Neel

However, at one point he stormed out of a visit , notes in hand since , as he later put it, he did not believe Alice was telling him the truth and he wanted nothing to do with such a book.  He destroyed the notes and it was up to Robert Lescher to again begin the process as her publisher eagerly awaited the manuscript. The book was finally published in 1963.  I had a chance to meet with him twice in NYC and enjoyed his recollections of time with Alice.

So, as we all wrap up the last week of 2012 and gird ourselves for the ups and downs of 2013, my card to all of you this year features you know who,  with four-legged you know who the second and a few collaged items to make it all festive!  In her lap, Alice proudly displays her fruitcake which was one of the things that she relished making at the end of WWII.  The recipe is in her cookbook and ends with preparing icing  though she insists that that is “gilding the lily!”

With all good wishes to all….

HRG

There are some events in life which can never be repeated or should only be repeated in the most pleasant of dreams.  Such an event, the memorial for Julian Samuel Stein, Jr., began at a few minutes after 4 PM, October 6^th, 2012 at the Maryland Historical Society one week ago today.

The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore

The auditorium of the society was almost filled as Vishwa and I walked in. We were ready to join the SRO corps that would undoubtedly soon form.  It was like entering the Metropolitan Opera at the final performance of the most highly revered tenor in the world and all seats were taken.   Luckily we saw our friend Betsy, Julian’s partner, near the front of the auditorium and as we wanted to be sure to greet her with loving hugs before the program began, we pushed our way through the not yet seated crowd.

We found Betsy and hugged, all of us a bit teary-eyed.  She sensed we were looking for seats and there, three seats down from where she was sitting in the front row were four empty chairs next to two of her close friends.

“Are two of these taken?” I asked.  “No, “ replied Betsy’s friend.

Betsy and Julian…enough said !

There we were in the front row for the event of a lifetime to hear about the events of a lifetime!

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I have never understood it when after someone has died people often say ‘He (or she) had a full life,’ as if  a life lived can be measured in a Pyrex measuring cup.  As if once life reaches beyond the little red markings with the possibility of overflowing onto the Formica counter, it’s time to pass on.

...my cup runneth over

A few weeks ago, my friend Julian Stein, Jr. died in Baltimore.  At 93, I’m certain many will say he had a full life, but I am willing to bet that his family and many others including me, wish that the Great Filler of the Pyrex Cup in the Sky would have allowed him just a few more ounces above the red markings.

There are many who miss him so, so much already.

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In my children’s book Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom, which I hope will soon reach the bookstores of the various museums where the Stein exhibitions are being held, the two young boys who visit rue de Fleurus encounter the atelier’s floor-to-ceiling paintings for the first time:

“Look at this really rambling room!” whispered Tom.  “There are masterful modern paintings floor to ceiling!  It looks like a museum!  I hate museums, everything in a museum is musty and moldy.”

Fritz pressed his nose against one of the paintings.  “This person has four flaming eyes and three thick ears and is not musty and moldy!”

Tom Hachtman's Fritz and Tom

I can assure you that there is also nothing musty or moldy at  The Steins Collect exhibition which opened last week at SFMOMA !

In the 25+ years that I’ve been obsessed with GertrudeandAlice I have had moments more extraordinary than the proverbial “aha!”  moments. I  would have to say that they are  more like  “ah Stein!” moments!

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