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{{short description|American novelist}}

'''Francis Steegmuller''' (July 3, 1906 – October 20, 1994) 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.<ref name=fspapers/> 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 Award]]s—one in 1971 for [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Arts and Letters|Arts and Letters]] for his biography of [[Jean Cocteau]] (''Cocteau: A Biography''),<ref name=nba1971>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1971 "National Book Awards – 1971"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-10.</ref> another in 1981 for [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Translation|Translation]] for the first volume of [[Flaubert's letters|Flaubert's selected letters]] (''The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857'')<ref name=nba1981>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1981 "National Book Awards – 1981"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-10.</ref>—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.

Steegmuller's collected papers are held at two universities: at [[Yale University]], the [[James Jackson Jarves]] (1818–1888) Papers and the Francis Steegmuller Collection for Jacques Villon; at [[Columbia University]], the Francis Steegmuller Papers 1877–1979.<ref name="fspapers">{{cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Francis Steegmuller Papers 1877-1979|url=https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079364|archive-url=|archive-date=|work=Columbia University Libraries}}</ref>

He died in Naples, Italy.

==Works==

===Nonfiction===
*''[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1719397 Sir Francis Bacon: the first modern mind]'' (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1930)
* ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1857708 America on Relief]'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1938 with [http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3A%22Lane%2C+Marie+Dresden.%2C%22&qt=hot_author Marie Dresden Lane])
* ''[http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?usca_p=t&product_id=4159 Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait]'' (New York: [[Viking Press]], 1939)
* ''[[Guy de Maupassant|Maupassant]]: A Lion In The Path'' (New York: [[Random House]], 1949)
* ''The Two Lives of [[James Jackson Jarves]]'' (New Haven: [[Yale University Press]], 1951)
* ''[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1038958 The Grand Mademoiselle]'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1956)
* ''[[Apollinaire]]: Poet Among the Painters'' (New York: Farrar, Straus & Company, 1963)
* ''[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/83303 Jacques Villon, master printmaker. An exhibition at R.M. Light & Co., Helene C. Seiferheld Gallery inc., New York, February, 1964.]'' (New York: High Grade Press, 1964)
* ''[[Cocteau]]: A Biography'' (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1970)
* ''Stories and True Stories'' (Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1972)
* ''"Your Isadora": The Love Story of [[Isadora Duncan]] & [[Edward Gordon Craig|Gordon Craig]]'' (New York: Random House, 1974)
* Catherine McNamara, ''School days remembered : oral history interview with Francis Steegmuller'' ([http://www.glohistory.org/ Oral history project. Friends of the Greenwich Library]), (Greenwich, CT: [http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/default.htm Greenwich Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202200427/http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/default.htm |date=2007-02-02 }}, 1978)
* ''[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5207.html A Woman, A Man, And Two Kingdoms]: The Story of [[Louise d'Épinay|Madame d'Épinay]] and the [[Abbé Galiani]]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1991)

===Translations===
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''The Selected Letters of Gustave Flaubert (The Great Letters Series)'' (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1953)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679420316 Madame Bovary]'' (New York: Random House for the [[Book of the Month Club]], 1957)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''[https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/baskin/view_item.php?sec=5&sub=14 A Letter from Gustave Flaubert]'', illustrated by [[Leonard Baskin]] (Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1960)
* [[Edward Lear]], ''Le Hibou et la Poussiquette, [[Edward Lear]]'s [[The Owl and the Pussycat]]'' freely translated into French, illustrated by [[Barbara Cooney]] (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1961)
* [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve]], ''Selected Essays'', translated from the French with [[Norbert Guterman]] (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1963)
* [[Eugene Field]], ''Papillot, Clignot et Dodo, [[Eugene Field]]'s [[Wynken, Blynken, and Nod]]'' freely translated into French with [[Norbert Guterman]], illustrated by [[Barbara Cooney]] (New York: Ariel Books, 1964)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''Intimate Notebook 1840-1841'' (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1967)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''[http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140435825,00.html?strSrchSql=steegmuller/Flaubert_in_Egypt_Gustave_Flaubert Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour]'' (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/FLALET.html The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857]'' (Cambridge: [[Harvard University Press]], 1980)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], ''[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=24117 The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1857-1880]'' (Cambridge: [[Harvard University Press]], 1982)
* [[Gustave Flaubert]], [[George Sand]], ''Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence,'' translated with [[Barbara Bray]] (London: Harvill, 1993)

===Novels===
* ''O Rare [[Ben Jonson]]'' (New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.]], 1928 under the name Byron Steel)
* ''A Matter of Iodine'' (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1940 under the name David Keith)
* ''A Matter of Accent'' (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1943 under the name David Keith)
* ''States of Grace'' (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946)
* ''The Blue Harpsichord'' (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1949 under the name David Keith)
* ''The Christening Party'' (New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1960)
* ''Silence at [[Salerno]]: A comedy of intrigue'' (New York: [[Holt, Rinehart and Winston]], 1978)

===Short stories===
*''French Follies and Other Follies: 20 stories from [[The New Yorker]]'' (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946)

===Travel books===
*''Java-Java'' (New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.]], 1928 under the name Byron Steel)
*''Let's Visit [[Belgium]]'' (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1938)
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=H1E5cs69nEgC&q=The+Ancient+Shore The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples]'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008) (with [[Shirley Hazzard]])

===Magazine and newspaper articles===
*''[[Duchamp]]: Fifty Years After,'' Show, February 1963
*''An Angel, A Flower, A Bird'' (profile of [[Barbette (performer)|Barbette]]), ''[[The New Yorker]]'', September 27, 1969
* "Francis Steegmuller: A Life of Letters." Interview by Lucy Latane Gordon. ''[[Wilson Library Bulletin]]'' (January, 1992): 62–64, 136.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lucy Latane Gordon|via=[[Wilson Library Bulletin]] (January, 1992): 62-64, 136|title=''Francis Steegmuller: A Life of Letters''|year=2007|publisher=iUniverse |isbn=9780595454853|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HfOXTrLmnPAC&q=Francis+Steegmuller:+A+Life+of+Letters&pg=PA36|accessdate=2011-01-06}}</ref>

==Quotations==
*"I’m told that when [[W. H. Auden|Auden]] died, they found his Oxford [English Dictionary] all but clawed to pieces. That is the way a [[poet]] and his [[dictionary]] should come out."<ref>{{cite web | title=''Simpson's Contemporary Quotations,'' No.7532 | url=http://www.bartleby.com/63/32/7532.html | author=Francis Steegmuller | work=New York Times, 26 March 1980 | accessdate=2007-01-29}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Jacques Barzun]]
* [[Barbara Bray]]
* [[Ralph Ellison]]
* [[Clifton Fadiman]]
* [[Norbert Guterman]]
* [[Shirley Hazzard]]
* [[List of translators]]
* [[William Keepers Maxwell, Jr.|William Maxwell]]
* [[Meyer Schapiro|Meyer Shapiro]]
* [[Translation]]

==References==

<references />

==Further reading==

===Correspondence===
*[http://www.moma.org/research/archives/EAD/Barrb.html Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives]
**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
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080517025523/http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00300/hrc-00300p1.html William A. Bradley Literary Agency Records, 1909-1982], [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/info/ Harry Ransom Humanities Center], [[University of Texas at Austin|The University of Texas at Austin]]
**Series I. Author Correspondence, 1909–1982, Box 58 Folder 8, Steegmuller, Francis, 1928–1982.
*[http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/brinnin4.htm The John Malcolm Brinnin Papers, 1930 - 1981], [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/ Special Collections], 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
*[http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou00946 Cummings, E.E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962. Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317113817/http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou00946 |date=2007-03-17 }}, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, [[Harvard University]], Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
**Series: I. MS Am 1823: Letters to [[E. E. Cummings]], (1261) Steegmuller, Francis, 1906- 3 letters; 1959–1962.
**Series: II. MS Am 1823.1: Letters from [[E. E. Cummings]], (353) King, Madeleine, recipient. 1 letter; [1959] Includes letters to Stephen K. Oberbeck, Charlotte B. Howe, Mae Ward and F. Steegmuller
**Series: III. MS Am 1823.2: Letters to Marion (Morehouse) Cummings, (241) Steegmuller, Francis, 1906- 1 letter; 1959.
*[http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss10_list.html#list-ser3 Mina Kirstein Curtiss Papers, 1913-2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213071039/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss10_list.html#list-ser3 |date=2007-02-13 }}, [[Sophia Smith (Smith College)|Sophia Smith]] Collection, [[Smith College]], Northampton, Mass.
**Series III. Correspondence, (1913–85), Box 15 Folder 6, Steegmuller, Francis, 1948–84, n.d.
*[http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou01917 Levin, Harry, 1912-1994. Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070319034847/http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou01917 |date=2007-03-19 }}, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, [[Harvard University]], Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
**Series: I. Correspondence, (939) Steegmuller, Francis, 1906-. Correspondence with [[Harry Levin]], 1954–1987. 3 folders.
**Series: III. Other correspondence
***B. Letters to Elena Levin, (1226) Steegmuller, Francis, 1906-. Letter to Elena Levin, 1970. 1 folder.
***C. Correspondence by others, (1261) Bond, W.H. (William Henry), 1915-. Letters to others, 1966–1978. 1 folder. Includes letters to Francis Steegmuller, [[The Times Literary Supplement]], and Jeremy Treglown.
*[http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/jacqselc.htm Jacques Seligmann & Co. Records, 1904-1978 in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution]
**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
*[https://utulsa.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/117846 Francis Steegmuller Correspondence with Charles Antin], [https://utulsa.libguides.com/c.php?g=831862 Department of Special Collections & University Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811062953/https://utulsa.libguides.com/c.php?g=831862 |date=2020-08-11 }}, McFarlin Library, [[University of Tulsa|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]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=SAs1a7AC5cAC&q=steegmuller Nothing to be frightened of]'' (New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf]], 2008), pp. 132, 166, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SAs1a7AC5cAC&q=naples+hospital 168]
*Hyman Bogen, ''[https://archive.org/details/luckiestorphans00boge/page/219  The Luckiest Orphans: a history of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York]'' (Champaign, IL: [[University of Illinois Press]], 1992), p. 219
*Barbara A. Burkhardt, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=o_r4xQgkMZ8C&q=steegmuller William Maxwell: a literary life]'' (Champaign, IL: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2005), pp. 189–190, 196, 260, 271
*Richard M. Cook, ''[https://archive.org/details/alfredkazinbiogr00cook_0  Alfred Kazin: a biography]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 237–238, 388–389, 395
*Scott Donaldson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1DecfKQ6vU0C&q=Steegmuller+&pg=PA254 John Cheever: a biography]'' (Lincoln, NE: [[iUniverse, Inc.]], 2001), pp. 158, 254
*Richard Greene, editor, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CaWhLNSr6FoC&q=steegmuller Graham Greene: a life in letters]'' (London: [[Little, Brown]], 2007), pp. 330–1, 332
*Lawrence Jackson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NCEV37_oA2AC&q=steegmuller Ralph Ellison: emergence of genius]'' (New York: [[John Wiley & Sons, Inc.]], 2002), pp. 369, 376, 383, 384, 413
*Greg Johnson, editor, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=k2SA58nukLUC&q=Steegmuller&pg=PA469 The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates 1973 - 1982]'' (New York: [[Ecco Press|Ecco]], 2007), p. 469
*Catherine McNamara, ''School days remembered: oral history interview with Francis Steegmuller'' ([http://www.glohistory.org/ Oral history project. Friends of the Greenwich Library]), (Greenwich, CT: [http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/default.htm Greenwich Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202200427/http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/default.htm |date=2007-02-02 }}, 1978)
*[[David Marr (journalist)|David Marr]], editor, ''[https://archive.org/details/letters00whit  Letters / Patrick White]'' (Chicago: [[The University of Chicago Press]], 1996), pp. 474, 499, 528, 530, 532–3, 575, 625, 637, 643
*[[Albert Murray (writer)|Albert Murray]], [[John F. Callahan]], eds., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=kjghAQAAIAAJ&q=steegmuller Trading Twelves: the selected letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray]'' (New York: [[The Modern Library]], 2000), pp. 6, 10, 23, 26, 160, 165
*[[Graham Payn]], [[Sheridan Morley]], eds., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Pwx7sZo5wvIC&q=steegmuller The Noël Coward Diaries]'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Da Capo Press]], 2000), p. 623
*[[Arnold Rampersad]], ''[https://archive.org/details/ralphellisonbiog00ramp  Ralph Ellison: a biography]'' (New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf]], 2007), pp. 172, 212–13, 215, 216, 232, 233, 236–7, 240, 241, 242, 250, 259, 331, 332, 405
*[[Ned Rorem]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aBhuq3abXhsC&q=steegmuller The Later Diaries 1961–1972]'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Da Capo Press]], 2000), pp. 196, 277, 319–320, 343
*Martin Stannard, ''[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780393051742  Muriel Spark: the biography]'' (New York: [[W. W. Norton & Company]], 2010), pp. 271–2, 274, 276, 284, 299, 404
*[[Diana Trilling]], ''[https://archive.org/details/beginningofjourn00tril  The Beginning of the Journey: the marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling]'' (New York: [[Harcourt Trade Publishers|Harcourt Brace & Company]], 1993), pp. 83, 122
*[[Alec Wilkinson]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=rMfrgFU5P2MC&q=Steegmuller My Mentor: a young man's friendship with William Maxwell]'' (New York: [[Houghton Mifflin Company]], 2002), pp. 110, 126, 146
*Alan Ziegler, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=JLUGpnm3wVAC&q=Steegmuller+&pg=PA12 The Writing Workshop Note Book: notes on creating and workshopping]'' (Berkeley, CA: [[Soft Skull Press]], 2008), p. 12

==External links==
*[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079364 Francis Steegmuller Papers 1877-1979], [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/rbml/index.html Rare Book and Manuscript Library], Columbia University Libraries
*[http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.steeg Francis Steegmuller Collection of Jacques Villon.] General Collection, [http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/ Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library], [[Yale University]]
*[[James Jackson Jarves]] (1818–1888) Papers, [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0301 Manuscripts and Archives], Yale University Library
*[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C16FB3D5B0C718EDDA90994DC494D81 Francis Steegmuller, 88, Dies; Writer and Flaubert Expert], New York Times Obituary, 22 October 1994.
*[http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/17 Criterion Collection essay] for [[Jean Cocteau]]'s ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)]]'' by Francis Steegmuller
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070321132348/http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/findaids/Cooney/MSS19970102.html Barbara Cooney Papers], Archives & Special Collections at the [https://thedoddcenter.uconn.edu/ Thomas J. Dodd Research Center], [[University of Connecticut]] Libraries
*[http://www.glohistory.org/index.html The Greenwich Library Oral History Project] for ''School days remembered: oral history interview with Francis Steegmuller'' by Catherine McNamara. A copy of this interview may be purchased at the Oral History Project office.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steegmuller, Francis}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:Translators of Gustave Flaubert]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni]]

Francis Steegmuller - Revision history

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