LETTERS: Lore and David Segal Correspondence.
The Ozick-Segal Archive
Ozick, Cynthia. Correspondence with Lore Segal, 1965-2003, ca. 150 items.
Together with:
Ozick, Cynthia. Correspondence with David Segal, 1965-70, ca. 75 items.
Cynthia Ozick’s correspondence with Lore Segal, 1965-2003, is vast and deep, throughout which Ozick vents her thoughts and feelings about salient issues relating to Jews, to women, and to writers—commenting regularly on Lore Segal’s writing, and occasionally on her own—contributing a great deal of biographical detail along the way. The correspondence ranges in length from terse postcards to autograph letters bearing six or seven pages of Ozick’s tiny hand.
Much of the correspondence mentions disagreements regarding each woman’s ideas about the responsibilities of American Jewry, Jewish identity, and the State of Israel, beginning in 1965 after Ozick had first been invited to the Segal’s home.
Over the years the discussion does not get easier. Twenty years later—in August, 1985—Ozick complains, “No sooner do we make some progress together, than one or the other of us takes a big step backward.” In the same letter, Ozick takes issue with Segal’s stance on Zionism: “Lore, the bitter quarrel between us is that you think you already understand the Israeli case. You do not. What you said last night was untenable and unacceptable: it was pure Arab Line. You said, ‘The Jews came in and took away the land.’” Several pieces of correspondence from 1980 onward also include specific disagreements about Edward Said and his scholarship.
Despite the sometimes testy debates over politics and identity, the women’s close and strong friendship remains clear through the correspondence. Ozick’s advice and comments on Segal’s stories is a common thread throughout the decades, as is family news, publishing gossip, and news of mutual friends. The archive breaks down as follows:
117 letters and postcards:
1965-1969 - 1 ALS, 5 TLS
1970s - pen and crayon drawing and letter written in green marker, “your answering machine is anti-semitic.”
1978-1979 - 9 ALS, 2 TLS, 1 APCS.
1980-1989 - 13 ALS, 21 TLS, 14 APCS
1990-1995 - 24 ALS, 4 TLS, 7 APCS.
1996-2000 - 6 ALS, 4 APCS.
2001-2003 - 7 ALS, 2 TLS, 3 APCS; photocopies of 2 TLS from Peter Gay to Cynthia Ozick.
23 ALS, 4 TLS, 1 combination, 1 typescript poem addressed to Segal (or to Lore and David Segal jointly).
Photocopies of Ozick’s letters to various publications regarding, for example, Israeli and American foreign policy.
Occasional letters by others to Ozick, who has forwarded them to Segal with her typed or autograph comments.
Several pieces of correspondence from Segal to Ozick, labeled “unsent”: TLS 1990, 2002, 1985; 2 ALS undated.
Ozick’s correspondence with friend and some time editor David Segal, 1965-1970, contains more long, dense, humorous, touching letters. Some letters address editorial matters—her writing and reading, his notes, and her views on blurbs and reviews. In one carbon from David he admonishes her for having written to a critic, and warmly asks that she divert all such letters to him so that he may destroy them. Even those professional letters, however, are full of political opinion, social thought, friendly gossip, and heartfelt solicitations. The archive breaks down as follows:
2 ALS, 7 TLS, most 2-4 leaves, 1965-1970.
21 ALS, 42 TLS from Ozick to David Segal, 1965-70.
Also present:
1 Lore Segal TLS.
1 Sontag TLS re. Ozick.
1 Sol Yarick TLS re. Ozick.
Typescript by “AJP” on Ozick’s Trust.
Copies of Lore Segal material to Theron Raines re. Trust.
Press release, The Pagan Rabbi.
Photocopies of some reviews by Ozick.
Ozick (b. 1928) was raised in New York City by parents who owned and operated a pharmacy in the Bronx; one of her responsibilities growing up was to deliver prescriptions to people in her neighborhood. She received her B.A. from NYU in 1949 and her M.A. from Ohio State University one year
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