Saul Steinberg
posted:
this image first published in the New Yorker Jan. 30, 1965
Doff your caps, genuflect and stay your writing tools for a moment of sober reflection on the greatness that was Saul Steinberg. Today is his birthday; he'd be 92. Here's a blurb I wrote for his birthday banner this morning:
"Because of Saul Steinberg, we can enlarge and dignify the act of drawing with a new word: doodling. This master observer and draftsman, with the simplest of tools barked out surgical sonnets and sly symphonies with scalpel-like wit. He wore the heavy crown of his accomplishment effortlessly while the jewels eluded (and continue to beguile) our earnest attempts to grasp them. Our clumsy, self-conscious fingers strive to imitate but we can only make a living at drawing. Instead, Saul Steinberg made life with his doodles."
Amen! Now, get back to work!
