MY DECADE with Joan Mitchell has left me deeply indebted. At the top of the list of those who helped me take Joan’s measure are her former husband, Barney Rosset, and his companion Astrid Myers, whose unflagging support and generosity of spirit and deed have been vital to this book. Joan’s niece, Sally Perry; Susan Sloan; Carolyn Somers and her staff at the Joan Mitchell Foundation, especially Jen Dohne and Kira Osti; and John Cheim and his staff at Cheim & Read Gallery were equally wonderful and indispensable to my efforts.
I thank too Joan’s friends for their insightfulness, helpfulness, patience, and good humor: Jill Weinberg Adams, Robert McCormick Adams, Jean-Max Albert, David Amram, David Anderson, Sally Apfelbaum, John Ashbery, Paul Auster, Deirdre Bair, Gisèle Barreau, Lynda Benglis, John Bennett, Bill Berkson, Marc Berlet, Martha Bertolette, Guy Bloch-Champfort, Franck Bordas, Peggy Bowman, Richard Bowman, Paul Brach, Carol Braider, Michael Brenson, Marion Cajori, Christopher Campbell, Jerry Carlin, Nic Carone, Hervé Chandès, Champlain Charest, Réjeanne Charest, Robert Chiarito, Ed Clark, Marabeth Cohen-Tyler, Ornette Coleman, Alicia Creus, Katy Crowe, Eldon Danhausen, Lydia Davis, Jacques Dupin, Victor Elmaleh, Louise Fishman, Catherine Flohic, Jean Fournier, Edi Franceschini, Jane Freilicher, Jaqueline Fried, Monique Frydman, Georgia Funsten, Michael Goldberg, Leon Goldin, Robert Gottlieb, Roseline Granet, John Gruen, Yvonne Hagen, Anne Hailey, John Hailey, James Harithas, Robert Harms, Robert Hasterlik, Elga Heinzen, Evans Herman, John Holabird, Sara Holt, Jacqueline Hyde, Ernst Jaffe, Shirley Jaffe, Hollis Jeffcoat, Paul Jenkins, Consuelo Joerns, Betsy Jolas, Howard Kanovitz, Stanley Karnow, Herbert Katzman, Nathan Kernan, Elisabeth Kley, Ellen Lanyon, Jeanne Le Bozec, Caroline Lee, Connie Lembark, Alfred Leslie, Teru Osato Lundsten, Jean Lyons Keely, Robert Miller, Sarah Miller, Zuka Mitelberg, Malcolm Morley, Christine Mouillère, Jean Mouillère, Cynthia Navaretta, Alvin Novak, Sono Osato, Patricia Passlof, Philip Pavia, Joyce Pensato, Raymonde Perthuis, Shirley Petry, Carl Plansky, Paul Richard, Yseult Riopelle, Christiane Rousseaux-Mosettig, Irving Sandler, Miriam Schapiro, Michaële-Andréa Schatt, Pierre Schneider, Bill Scott, Margaret Shook, Manny Silverman, Rose Slivka, Marilyn Stark, Eugene V. Thaw, Yvonne Thomas, Sally Turton, Ken Tyler, Lynn Umlauf, Huguette Vachon, Kate Van Houten, Joanne and Philip Von Blon, Elizabeth von Klemperer, Mitch Waters, June Wayne, Lise Weil, Jane Wilson, Eleanor Wright, Rufus Zogbaum, Larry Zox, and Anonymous.
Christopher Campbell, Celia Stahr, Carol Steen, and Ramsay Breslin and the Psychobiography Group generously read drafts of my manuscript.
I thank Gisèle Barreau for permission to include an excerpt from “La Grande Vallée”; the Joan Mitchell Foundation for permission to use quotations by Joan Mitchell and from documents in the Joan Mitchell Archival Collection; Barney Rosset for permission to reproduce excerpts from his letters; Irving Sandler and the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2000.M.43), for permission to use excerpts from documents in the Irving Sandler Papers, Getty Research Institute, Research Library Special Collections & Visual Resources, Los Angeles; the George Dillon Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York; and Joan’s niece Sally Perry for permission to use Marion Strobel’s poem “Bon Voyage”; and the Collection of Frank O’Hara Letters, Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries, for providing the transcript of a 26 August 1957 letter from Frank O’Hara to Michael Goldberg.
For love, friendship, advice, and support, I am also grateful to Kate Adams, Elliott and Max Albers, Kit and Rick Bennett, Amanda Carver, Sean Day and the Synesthesia List, Natalie Edgar, Pamela Glintenkamp, Sarah and Andrew Gross, Jack Herbert, Suzanne Jenkins, Klaus Kertess, Betty Klausner, Elizabeth and Todd Koelmel, Sonja Marck, David McKendall, Kristin McKendall, Kyle McKendall, Maysha Mohamedi, Honor Moore, Francis M. Naumann, Norman J. Pahls, Nick Parsons, Nancy Robb, Sandy Schimmel, Chris Sekaer, Bill Smith, Ellen Smith, Steve Van Buren, and Jeanie Hunt Van Nice.
My deep appreciation also goes to numerous librarians and archivists, unsung heroes all: Wendy Hurlock Baker, Archives of American Art; Bart Ryckbosch and Deborah S. Webb, Archives of the Art Institute of Chicago; Arts Club of Chicago; Timothy Young, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Joanne Lauzon, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec; Holly Sherratt and Frank Hettig, Bonhams & Butterfields; Chicago Historical Society; Nancy Iona Glick, Havana Public Library District; Rebecca Sandler, Jewish Theological Seminary Library; Lake Forest–Lake Bluff Historical Society; J. Pierpont Morgan Library; New York Public Library; Charlotte Priddle, New York Studio School; Newberry Library; Andy Kaplan, Francis W. Parker School; Getty Research Institute; Aimee Brown, Smith College Archives; Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library; Melissa Watterworth, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut; Video Data Bank, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Whitney Museum Library. Warm thanks also go to Sandra Olsen and Mary Moran, UB Anderson Gallery, University at Buffalo; Susan Shockley, The Parthenon; Galerie Jean Fournier; Lennon, Weinberg Gallery; Edward Tyler Nahem; and Robert Miller Gallery.
Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the California Lottery Fund provided vital financial and morale-boosting support.
I owe special thanks to Laurie Fox, my agent extraordinaire, and, at Knopf, to the wonderful Carmen Johnson and my unparalleled editor, Vicky Wilson.
Finally, my love and gratitude go to my son, Sam Spiewak, and husband, Benjamin McKendall, for their love and unswerving support of this book.