Frances Steloff, Patron Saint of Animals and Writers

Frances Steloff was a significant participant and speaker from The Weekend, Celebration With Anaïs Nin.

From my journal shortly after the weekend I wrote about Frances:

Frances at eighty-four still in flow and growing, asking "What next?" She comes up to me and says, "When you asked me to come here I didn't think I belonged. Now I see why you asked me, how I fit in, how I lived my life the way it was intended." A true innocent. I could not believe she was who she is and not really feel the importance of her role in the lives of creators. Suppose she had missed that awareness! I realized how little people say to each other when they have achieved something. The world assumes Frances Steloff does not need to be told but that is not true.

May, 1972

from: The New York Times obituaries column, Sunday April 16, 1989

Frances Steloff is Dead at 101; Founded the Gotham Book Mart.Frances (Fanny) Steloff, one of the country's most distinguished independent booksellers died of pneumonia yesterday at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She was 101 years old and lived in Manhattan.Miss Steloff founded the Gotham Book Mart in 1920 and over the years turned it into an international literary haven. It is still thriving at 41 West 47th street in Manhattan, an anachronism in a time of failing independent booksellers.Soon after the store opened it attracted authors, dramatists, poets and artists. Among those who came to chat to browse and to see if their books and plays were on the shelves were Theodore Dressler, John Dos Passos, H. J. L. Menken and Euegene O'Neill. Her customers included George and Ira Gershwin, Ina Claire and Charlie Chaplin, and more recently Alexander Calder, Stephen Spender, Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, John Guare and Garson Kanin. She championed the experimental and challenged the censors. Her courage in purchasing shipments of the banned, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" directly from D. H. Lawrence in Italy in he late 1920's and in ordering smuggled copies of, "Tropic of Cancer" from Henry Miller in Paris during the 1930's led to lawsuits and landmark decisions on censorship.......

One of my treasured moments with Frances was an evening in early 1973 when she invited me and Valerie for dinner in her apartment above the book store. The apartment itself was a clutter of letters and boxes piled everywhere. I stole a peek at a pile of Christmas cards and they turned out to be not from the present year but several years before. The cards were from writers Henry Miller and Larry Durrell and endless other literary luminaries. These papers were strewn about like dust rather than mini-treasures in themselves. The apartment was located on the third floor above the store below. It was small, consisting of a living room, bedroom, bath and a closet kitchen with sliding Japanese screen doors. Frances opened the door for us wearing a quilted kimono and told us she had just spent several days in a class studying the technique of foot massage and wanted to practice. Would one of us volunteer? A foot massage is heaven in itself, but when Frances had me sit in a chair facing her, with my feet in a towel resting in her lap as she proceeded to rub every place in my feet for an hour, I knew I was being taken care of an angel. Valerie took pictures.

Adele Aldridge, 1973 before foot massage by Frances Steloff Photo by Valerie Harms .

When the pictures were developed one of them shows me with only a swirling light above my head with no face beneath it. That's what I felt like. I have never had such a blessing before or since. There is no explanation for this strange photo except I know it happened.

 
Frances Steloff, 1973
Photo by Valerie Harms

Frances and Adele

I moved to California in 1976 and didn't see Frances Steloff for years. I saw her for the last time in the Summer of 1987. I was on a visit to New York and Connecticut and when Valerie asked if I might like to go see Frances. Of course I would! One never made arrangements to see her. One just dropped in. I had no idea what we would find at the age of ninety-nine and one half. I had never seen anyone that old before. Frances had a hearing problem when we met her in 1971, but as Valerie once noted, "She always hears you, Adele, have you noticed?" Yes, I did and always felt flattered by that.

When we got to the Gotham, Frances was nowhere to be found which was not surprising. We inquired and were told we could go upstairs. Valerie and I knocked on the door for a while, not knowing what to expect or if she could hear us knocking. Finally Frances answered, wearing a robe that was opened revealing her aged body, not appearing to know or care. Her hair was uncombed and she looked as old as she was - ninety-nine and one half. She peered at us (I had not seen Frances for over 11 years). Valerie said, "Frances, it's me and Adele. Remember us?" After a few moments of looking us over, Frances eyes brightened with her smile as she casually said, "Oh hello, girls, come on in." We didn't stay long and I don't remember what we talked about except knowing she would be 100 that year that I asked, "Frances, are you getting ready for your big birthday ?" She was her usual modest self and said, "Oh, I suppose they'll do something."

Adele Aldridge, 1973
After foot massage by Frances Steloff.

Photo by Valerie Harmz