Gene Smith's Sink by Sam Stephenson

Author:Sam Stephenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

PART VI

15

A SAMPLE OF SMITH’S PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE, 1959–1961

April 19, 1959. A summons from the Supreme Court of the County of New York to pay $456.41 ($3,729.50 in 2017) to Willoughby Camera Stores.

* * *

June 24, 1959. A receipt for the purchase of 23 reels of audio tapes totaling $40.52. Florman & Babb, Inc.

* * *

October 17, 1959. An order of 79 books from Marboro Books on Forty-second Street totaling $186.89. Books include The Art Director at Work, Treasures of American Drawing, Painting and Reality, Learn to Draw, Shaw on Theatre, Man and Shadow, Brecht, and Chagall.

* * *

November 3, 1959. Smith pawn receipts from Joseph Miller, Licensed Loan Officer, at 1162 Sixth Avenue, totaling $200 for a Hasselblad camera, a 4.5 Biogon lens, and a Canon 4.5 400mm.

* * *

November 30, 1959. Smith pawn receipts from Joseph Miller totaling $425 for a Canon 3.5, Kilfitt 2.8, Canon Serenar lens, Yashica camera and three lenses, Novoflex lens, Canon lens, and others.

* * *

January 14, 1960. Letter from Dr. Frederick S. Frank, D.D.S., asking for payment of $401 for dental care. The letter references a phone conversation in which Smith says the family will have to sell the house in Croton so he can pay bills.

* * *

January 20, 1960. Letter from Smith to George Orick, who had spent the previous year, along with his wife, Emily, trying to help Smith get back on his feet.

I hereby terminate your representation of me. From this time you are no longer authorized to act as my agent or representative under any circumstances.

* * *

January 27, 1960. Letter from Emily Orick to Smith, written in part in third person, as if a deposition or court proceeding:

There is a word for Mr. Smith’s problems of the moment: projection. It is not George but Gene who, having made himself vulnerable, must now find someone culpable for his anxiety … But George is not your enemy, Gene, nor were any of the others whom you chose to see as your bêtes noir. The hooded figure whose face you can never seem to pin down is only yourself.

The time span gets shorter and shorter, Gene—eleven years for Life, two or three (inaccurate but unerring) for Magnum, a year for George—perhaps six months for the next person, three for the next, six weeks, three, a week-and-a-half, a few days, a few hours, a few minutes—then time will run out, and with him all your disguises. You will be left inexorably to face the man who has built so many cases against you.

* * *

January 28, 1960. Letter from the attorney Maxwell G. Cutler on behalf of Dr. Frank. Threatens legal proceedings to obtain the $401 for dental care.

* * *

February 2, 1960. A $500 check from Polaroid to Smith.

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March 30, 1960. $1,200 loan from Chemical Bank to Smith. Collateral is $10,000 in Equitable Life Assurance Society Policy.

* * *

May 17, 1960. Legal action against Smith by Olden Camera & Lens Co. on Sixth Avenue for $580.64 in debts.

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