His St. Louis roots are so shallow, Al Hirschfeld is off to New York by page 11—his art teacher told his mother that if her talented son stayed put, “Babe” would end up in the same sad state as his teacher, illustrating note cards for Stix, Baer & Fuller.
But like pretty much every other artist who’s shredded out of St. Louis as fast as possible, Hirschfeld and his signature style can be directly traced to his formative years in the River City. Reading Stern’s description of Hirschfeld as a tot, being pulled in a wagon around the World’s Fair, eating “fairy floss” (cotton candy) and gaping at ostriches, contortionists, bullfights, glass weavers, cow-milkers, a re-creation of the Galveston Flood, and the world’s largest pipe organ, it’s not hard to see the beginnings of his humor, his whimsy, and his love of the theatrical. St. Louis also apparently instilled a relentless work ethic in him: “I come from a very poor background,” Hirschfeld said. “The business of paying room rent is not imaginative. It stays with me forever.”
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Also like other expat St. Louis artists, Hirschfeld was forced to return to Missouri every so often and wasn’t always very happy about it. There’s a fun account of his first local gallery show, at Newhouse & Son on Kingshighway, in 1927. If you saw his most recent St. Louis show—held last year at the Kranzberg Studio in Grand Center as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival—you’ll get a huge kick out of that anecdote.
Although most of the text doesn’t cover events that took place here, the book will give you a greater appreciation of a world-famous artist with local ties. Stern’s deft balance of detail and action makes for a fast, but rich, read. And she has a sly sense of humor, a drive for precision, plus a knack for writing a scene as well as any playwright—in other words, she’s the perfect Hirschfeld biographer.
Stern appears as part of the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival on November 6.
