Francis Steegmuller

Francis Steegmuller was an American biographer, translator and fiction writer, who was known chiefly as a Flaubert scholar.

Life and career

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Steegmuller graduated from Columbia University in 1927. He contributed numerous short stories and articles to The New Yorker and also wrote under the pseudonyms of Byron Steel and David Keith. He won two National Book Awards—one in 1971 for Arts and Letters for his biography of Jean Cocteau, another in 1981 for Translation for the first volume of Flaubert's selected letters —and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal. His first wife was Beatrice Stein, a painter who was a pupil and friend of Jacques Villon; she died in 1961. He married the writer Shirley Hazzard in 1963. His collected papers are held at two universities: at Yale University, the James Jackson Jarves Papers and the Francis Steegmuller Collection for Jacques Villon; at Columbia University, the Francis Steegmuller Papers 1877–1979. He died in Naples, Italy.

Works

Nonfiction

'
' ' Maupassant: A Lion In The Path The Two Lives of James Jackson Jarves
' Apollinaire: Poet Among the Painters Cocteau: A Biography Stories and True Stories "Your Isadora": The Love Story of Isadora Duncan & Gordon Craig
Catherine McNamara, School days remembered : oral history interview with Francis Steegmuller,
'': The Story of Madame d'Épinay and the Abbé Galiani''

Translations

Gustave Flaubert, The Selected Letters of Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert, '
Gustave Flaubert, ', illustrated by Leonard Baskin
Edward Lear, Le Hibou et la Poussiquette, Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat freely translated into French, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Selected Essays, translated from the French with Norbert Guterman
Eugene Field, Papillot, Clignot et Dodo, Eugene Field's Wynken, Blynken, and Nod freely translated into French with Norbert Guterman, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Gustave Flaubert, Intimate Notebook 1840-1841
Gustave Flaubert, '
Gustave Flaubert, '
Gustave Flaubert,
Gustave Flaubert, George Sand, Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence, translated with Barbara Bray

Novels

O Rare Ben Jonson A Matter of Iodine A Matter of Accent States of Grace The Blue Harpsichord The Christening Party

''Silence at Salerno: A comedy of intrigue''

Short stories

''French Follies and Other Follies: 20 stories from The New Yorker''

Travel books

Java-Java
Let's Visit Belgium
''''

Magazine and newspaper articles

Duchamp: Fifty Years After, Show, February 1963
An Angel, A Flower, A Bird, The New Yorker, September 27, 1969
"Francis Steegmuller: A Life of Letters." Interview by Lucy Latane Gordon. Wilson Library Bulletin : 62-64, 136.

Quotations

"I’m told that when Auden died, they found his Oxford all but clawed to pieces. That is the way a poet and his dictionary should come out."

Correspondence

*Series 1: Correspondence
**Folder 1.61 mf 2168:401, Title S 1942, Steegmuller, Francis
**Folder 1.303 mf 2183:1292, mf 2184:4, Title Fire Letters 1958, Steegmuller, Francis
,, The University of Texas at Austin
*Series I. Author Correspondence, 1909-1982, Box 58 Folder 8, Steegmuller, Francis, 1928-1982.
,, University of Delaware Library
*Series I. Literary and professional correspondence, 1930 - 1982, Box 19 Folder 408, Steegmuller, Francis, 1906-,
**1971 Oct 25 ALS 2p
**1972 Jun 22 ACS 1p
, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
*Series: I. MS Am 1823: Letters to E. E. Cummings, Steegmuller, Francis, 1906- 3 letters; 1959-1962.
*Series: II. MS Am 1823.1: Letters from E. E. Cummings, King, Madeleine, recipient. 1 letter; Includes letters to Stephen K. Oberbeck, Charlotte B. Howe, Mae Ward and F. Steegmuller
*Series: III. MS Am 1823.2: Letters to Marion Cummings, Steegmuller, Francis, 1906- 1 letter; 1959.
, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
*Series III. Correspondence,, Box 15 Folder 6, Steegmuller, Francis, 1948–84, n.d.
, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
*Series: I. Correspondence, Steegmuller, Francis, 1906-. Correspondence with Harry Levin, 1954-1987. 3 folders.
*Series: III. Other correspondence
**B. Letters to Elena Levin, Steegmuller, Francis, 1906-. Letter to Elena Levin, 1970. 1 folder.
**C. Correspondence by others, Bond, W.H., 1915-. Letters to others, 1966-1978. 1 folder. Includes letters to Francis Steegmuller, The Times Literary Supplement, and Jeremy Treglown.

*Series 1: Correspondence, 1913-1978; 1.3: General Correspondence, 1913-1978
**Box 091, Steegmuller, Francis, 1946-1956
*Series 2: Collectors Files, 1904-1977, undated; 2.1: Collectors, 1908, 1917-1977, undated
**Box 208, Steegmuller, Francis, undated
,, McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa
*33 autograph and typescript postcards and letters dating from 1965 to 1978 from Francis Steegmuller to Charles Antin of Viking Press, all relating to Steegmuller's translation of Flaubert's ''Novembre.''

Biographical references

Many of the pages cited below can be read on Google Books if you click on the title of the book.

Julian Barnes, ', pp. 132, 166,
Hyman Bogen, ', p. 219
Barbara A. Burkhardt, ', pp. 189–190, 196, 260, 271
Richard M. Cook, ', pp. 237–238, 388-389, 395
Scott Donaldson, ', pp. 158, 254
Richard Greene, editor, ', pp. 330–1, 332
Lawrence Jackson, ', pp. 369, 376, 383, 384, 413
Greg Johnson, editor, ', p. 469
Catherine McNamara, School days remembered: oral history interview with Francis Steegmuller,
David Marr, editor, ', pp. 474, 499, 528, 530, 532-3, 575, 625, 637, 643
Albert Murray, John F. Callahan, eds., ', pp. 6, 10, 23, 26, 160, 165
Graham Payn, Sheridan Morley, eds., ', p. 623
Arnold Rampersad, ', pp. 172, 212-13, 215, 216, 232, 233, 236-7, 240, 241, 242, 250, 259, 331, 332, 405
Ned Rorem, ', pp. 196, 277, 319–320, 343
Martin Stannard, ', pp. 271–2, 274, 276, 284, 299, 404
Diana Trilling, ', pp. 83, 122
Alec Wilkinson, ', pp. 110, 126, 146
Alan Ziegler, , p. 12