Shirley Hazzard, THE SUNDAY TIMES, 18 MAY 2008 In the quieter, easterly fringes of New York’s Upper East Side, there is a large white apartment block. It was completed in 1951. Francis Steegmuller, the distinguished writer and Flaubert scholar, knew the architect, Gordon Bunshaft, and immediately rented one of the apartments. Steegmuller died in 1994, but his second wife stayed in the flat. Now, in the way of such things, the block is being “remodelled”, the apartments converted for sale. Almost all the old renters have left, and the place has become an eerie, uninhabited shell. Yet, defiantly surrounded by paintings and books, the second Mrs Steegmuller, now 77, remains. You may know her by her maiden name: Shirley Hazzard, for me the greatest living writer on goodness and love. --Bryan Appleyard
Shirley Hazzard,
ReplyDeleteTHE SUNDAY TIMES, 18 MAY 2008
In the quieter, easterly fringes of New York’s Upper East Side, there is a large white apartment block. It was completed in 1951. Francis Steegmuller, the distinguished writer and Flaubert scholar, knew the architect, Gordon Bunshaft, and immediately rented one of the apartments. Steegmuller died in 1994, but his second wife stayed in the flat. Now, in the way of such things, the block is being “remodelled”, the apartments converted for sale. Almost all the old renters have left, and the place has become an eerie, uninhabited shell. Yet, defiantly surrounded by paintings and books, the second Mrs Steegmuller, now 77, remains. You may know her by her maiden name: Shirley Hazzard, for me the greatest living writer on goodness and love.
--Bryan Appleyard