1956

February 14, flies to Russia on assignment for The New Yorker; stopovers in Paris, Stockholm, and Helsinki; arrives in Leningrad, February 18. Spends five weeks in Russia, traveling to Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, Tbilisi, Kharkov, Samarkand, Tashkent. Fills sketchbooks with drawings and also takes photographs. The trip results in two portfolios of drawings, published in The New Yorker, May 12 and June 9, 1956.

Steinberg in Russia, possibly Moscow, 1956. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Steinberg in Russia, possibly Moscow, 1956. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Page from “Samarkand, U.S.S.R.,” The New Yorker, May 12, 1956.
Page from “Samarkand, U.S.S.R.,” The New Yorker, May 12, 1956.
Page from “Winter in Moscow,” The New Yorker, June 9, 1956.
Page from “Winter in Moscow,” The New Yorker, June 9, 1956.
Page from Moscow sketchbook, 1956. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Page from Moscow sketchbook, 1956. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Page from “Winter in Moscow,” The New Yorker, June 9, 1956.
Page from “Winter in Moscow,” The New Yorker, June 9, 1956.
Kharkov, March 7, 1956. Page from a Russia sketchbook. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Kharkov, March 7, 1956. Page from a Russia sketchbook. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Tashkent. Page from a Russia sketchbook. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Tashkent. Page from a Russia sketchbook. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Probably Kazakhstan. Page from a Russia sketchbook. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Probably Kazakhstan. Page from a Russia sketchbook. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

March 6, premier of Jerome Robbins’s ballet The Concert, at the New York City Ballet, with backdrop by ST; for a revision of the ballet at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, 1958, ST creates a new backdrop.

Steinberg’s backdrop for Jerome Robbins’s ballet The Concert, New York City Ballet, March 1956.
Steinberg’s backdrop for Jerome Robbins’s ballet The Concert, New York City Ballet, March 1956.

Summer, ST and Hedda make a cross-country road trip, spending time in Alaska (Anchorage, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Fairbanks); they return in mid-August and go to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, till the end of the month.

Publication of Dessins by Gallimard, a French compilation from ST’s three previous books of drawings.

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