Bob Eckstein

 

    

Okay, I admit it, I love cats. For most of my life I've had a cat (or two). Inspired by Cats: Writers and Their Mews(es) written by Nava Atlas and illustrated by Bob Eckstein is absolutely gorgeous, even if you're not cat fan. From the introduction: "What is it about writers and cats? With so many possibilities to choose from, we could have a done a four-volume set. It may have been easier to have written a book called Great Writers Without Cats."

From Margaret Atwood to Ernest Hemingway to Edgar Allan Poe, this book is filled with fascinating facts and interesting observations from Nava Atlas and, oh so beautiful paintings by my man, Bob Eckstein.

Helen Gurley Brown said, "Cats are beautiful, smart, perverse, outrageous, funny, and satisfying.  They are probably the best of all creatures. Cats first, then people, and everything else comes after that." 

Tell us about where you live and what you love about it. 

I live in the northern tip of Manhattan, adjacent to the Cloisters, which I love. I swore I would never live in New York City again (I lived in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx…) unless it was next to the Cloisters.

I’ve painted the Cloisters numerous times. The Cloisters has the most beautiful gardens one could ever wish for. My wife and I walk through them frequently. Years ago, I was involved in preserving the view from the Cloisters. 

Inside the Cloisters

There were plans to build industrial buildings across the Hudson River, along the Palisades. Rockefeller built the Cloisters by collecting four medieval cloisters from France and purchased three miles of land across the water to keep the beautiful views. But then there were plans to end all that with skyscrapers. I wrote a (humorous) Op-ed about the situation that ran in newspapers. That raised awareness, attracted the involvement of a Senator, and ultimately changed the building plans. (This is written up in my new museum book). My college thesis was about the Cloisters.

Where were you living when you were 7 years old? Are they fond memories?

I was in the projects of the South Bronx. It would be too much work to think of any positive memories.

Is there a book that changed the way you look at life? 

There would be many later in my life, but I think the Walt Disney (below) series as a child was important. I, for the first part of my life, lived in a black and white world. The images in these books, which I still have although falling apart, provided relief and exploded my imagination.

                  

                                            

Do you have a favorite children’s book and what about it makes it so? 

I had very few. But I do also remember Go, Dog, Go by P. D. Eastman and edited by Dr. Seuss, which was a cool, colorful book. 

                                               

What are the funniest or most embarrassing stories your family tells about you? 

I’m sorry, but there are none that come to mind. Maybe I’m forgetting but as someone who has dedicated their life to avoiding embarrassing moments, I’m not aware of anything circulating about me. 

So far, I must sound like Debbie Downer. Especially for someone who writes jokes for a living. But as such, and as the oldest brother, I have always felt my job in the family was to be an oasis and make others laugh. I take it quite seriously to provide some comfort to my family. I speak at each eulogy and there have been too many. Without going into details, my family has been through a lot and going through a difficult time now.

So I try to lighten things up. One thing I do is host an occasional Jeopardy game over Zoom. And I used to create cartoons of the family with inside jokes for every holiday. 

How did you meet your beloved Julie? How did your first date go?

In college. She was my nemesis and thought I was creepy and obnoxious. I probably was. It was art school, and everyone was wearing clothes for thrift stores. I wore a jacket made popular by Woody Allen at the time purchased from a Canal Street Army surplus. 

The rift between us was really started by our graphic design professor, who had us do a project where we were to design our own business cards and stationery. This was for us a very cool homework assignment, a chance to shine, show off our design prowess, and pretend we had a business. When time came to show our work to the whole class, the professor held up both of our work mounted on foam core boards and announced to the room, “This is how to design an exciting business brand [mine], and this is how to do it wrong [hers].” With that, she got from her seat and left the room tearfully, cursing my name under her breath.

Our respective mutual friend's kind of fueled the feud, occasionally sharing with us that we hated each other. It took on a life of its own. It didn’t help that during the rest of my time at Pratt Institute I continued to look creepy, with long greasy hair, baggy camouflage cargo pants and a snappy business card.

Skip ahead ten years after graduation and we are both attending, sadly, the funeral of a college classmate. We are coincidentally again sitting near each other and cordially greet each other. The family of the deceased asked us to work together creating an art memorial and designing a tombstone, together. Putting aside the trauma we both caused for each other in our school days, we started a fresh correspondence. I learned new things about my enemy, like how she was delivering food to homeless in my old neighborhood I grew up in. Knowing how dangerous that area was, and probably still is, I asked to tag along, especially when I learned she was going by herself. I went a few more times and it was during this I observed her kindness and began falling in love.

Skip ahead a few weeks and at some point she blurted out, “that at the end of the day, you were the one I wanted to talk.” We finished designing our artist friend’s tombstone. Our artist friend used to sign all her work, “BETS.” Which was our initials.

We started dating and I remember thinking, “Well, this might as well happen,” and I proposed to my enemy.

I didn’t have a lot of things going for me to win over her parents: we were from two different religions. I was Catholic, she was Jewish. She was rich, I was a poor artist and writer, not a doctor or a lawyer. As we daydreamed what it would be like to have our families meet for the first time at our wedding, and thinking of all the characters involved (we can say that now as they are all deceased), we were convinced it would be a train wreck.

Elopement plans went into motion. As the world’s leading snowman expert (author of The Illustrated History of the Snowman), it was determined we would have to marry somewhere as cold as can be. Technically, the most northern point on the globe to legally exchange vows in a city hall, somewhere (in 2000), was in Reykjavik, Iceland. And so it was there, our relationship had come full circle. Pun intended, we then honeymooned by driving the circumference of the country.

Once we got closer to the most northern tip of Iceland, where the country grazes the Arctic Circle, we mailed the 50 professionally-printed handmade postcards we had created—a drawn map with little wedding symbols, announcing that we had eloped to about 50 flabbergasted friends and family. So, along with the natural excitement of getting married and being in love, it was coupled with the perverse enjoyment of knowing this news would be shocking to our closest friends and family. For two people who don’t drink, smoke, or have any real vices, this was a rare chance for us to be naughty. Two enemies making up.                     

Bob and Julie on their honeymoon

How are you different now than you were in your 20’s? 

I am completely different and don’t recognize myself.

Is there a question no one has ever asked you that you wish they would? Something, perhaps, that people would be surprised to know about you? 

Yes, I can think of many; Would you mind doing this week’s cover of The New Yorker? Can we finance your snowman movie for you?

We all have or can point to a certain experience where, because of this experience, it shifted our lives in a way that led to where we are today, it could be a person you encountered or you were in a certain place or you had a certain experience or all three, but it was so pivotal that you can say that because of this experience, I am where I am today as a writer or in a greater sense as the person I am now.

There is more than one pivotal moment, as is the case with most people. So, I will choose and share three:

I had a creative writing teacher in college who gave me the courage to pursue a life of writing. I had not gotten that support until then. She would read my pieces, anonymously, at the end of each class. That validation meant volumes.

Making right with my enemy and marrying her. She changed the way I treat people and her support has been invaluable to my career.

Conversely, nobody hurt my career more than Donald Trump. I had done one of the early exposes about him back when he was a dubious real estate mogul for SPY magazine. It was a famous piece about him cashing two cent checks. Well, he got even. Since he won his first election, so many of my clients and friends have hit hard times and it effectively eliminated my career in cartooning through his policies and the divisions he has created. I’ve been accused of working for the “fake news” (The New York Times), and Trump indirectly has gotten me fired off of boards, never-mind all the hurt and pain I have seen him inflict onto to others in my life, whether it was a lost job or chased out of the country. Not getting my vote for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Can you remember a particular random act of kindness from a stranger?

I still have high blood pressure from the previous question, breathing into a paper bag. Nothing comes to mind except my wife when I first saw her feeding homeless people.

Is there a song, person, or group that you listen to when you are feeling a bit down?

I speak to my mom. There are times when everyone needs to hear the voice of their mother. I’m lucky she is still alive and not a Trump supporter.

Were there parts in your book that your editor cut that you hated to see go? If so, what were they? 

I am very good at understanding that a book published by a large house is a team effort and to trust their expertise and compromise. But my experience has earned my an unusual level of freedom in my books, and I am very much given the final say on things. I can’t think of a time when something was cut, and I hated to see go.”

How do you feel about “Independent Bookstores” and their role in your success?

Well, I produced two whole books that were love letters to bookstores and expressed how important I felt they are to society and our culture. I’m indebted to them and try to do whatever I can to help. For starters, I’ve spoken on panels on the subject, written editorials, and have illustrated hundreds of independent bookstores for their own promotional use.

                                   

And finally, Bob,

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME 

to any period from before recorded history to yesterday, 

be safe from harm, be rich, poor or in-between, if appropriate to your choice, 

actually experience what it was like to live in that time, anywhere at all, 

meet anyone, if you desire, speak with them, listen to them, be with them. 

When would you go? 

Where would you go? 

Who would you want to meet? 

And most importantly, why do you think you chose this time? 

I’m afraid I don’t have an exotic choice or desire to meet anyone of acclaim. I have been very lucky to meet my heroes. In many cases, that is a special group I consider the funniest people in the world. Instead, I wish I could go back to the time when my closest friends and family were still alive. Most of my closest friends have left us, many at an early age. Knowing it would be the last time I would speak to them, I would want to say everything I regret not saying. I’m doing that right now with loved ones.

                                

                                Fountain Bookshop, NYC

Thank you, Bob, it's been a real pleasure. Readers be sure to pick up Nava and Bob's gorgeous and fascinating book at your locally owned independent bookstore.