BLOGGING EVA ZEISEL: THE SAGA CONTINUES

I interviewed living design legend Eva Zeisel just after she turned 100 and I turned 37. (We share the same birthday.) Since then, I have exchanged some emails with her grandson son and head of Eva Zeisel Originals, Adam Zeisel. I also was contacted by Pat Moore, who runs The Eva Zeisel Forum.

Some recent activity let me know that Eva is still alive and kicking:

Eva Reference #1

In the February issue of Oprah Magazine, Eva Ziesel showed up as #58 on a list entitled "100 Things That Are (Actually) Getting Better".

58. Eva Zeisel
With, among other things, her classic dinner service still flying off the shelves at Crate & Barrel, her new line of Royal Stafford dinnerware, the teakettle she created for Chantal, and the lounge chair of our dreams, the Hungarian artist, at 103, is being lauded like a midcareer phenom.

Eva Reference #2

I just received a kind note from a geriatrician who had read a letter which Eva had sent this month to The New Yorker. First, Eva's letter:

A letter in response to Louis Menand’s article (December 21, 2009)

January 18, 2010

According to Louis Menand’s review of Michael Scammell’s new biography of Arthur Koestler, I converted Koestler to Communism in Berlin in 1931 (A Critic at Large, December 21st & 28th). This is silly. I was never a Communist, and never encouraged Koestler (or anyone else) to become one, or to “lurch to the left.” I worked in Russia, and in many other countries, but I was apolitical. My arrest in Russia, in 1936, for “conspiring to kill Stalin,” was a trumped-up charge, as were many arrests during the Stalin purges.

Eva Striker Zeisel
New York City

Here is Dr. Murray Bratt's letter to me in response to Eva's letter and my blog post about her:

1-15-10

Dear Ms Traubman,

Thank you so much for your blog of 1-13-2007, interviewing Eva Zeisel, which I accessed this evening, after reading her feisty letter published in this week’s New Yorker, in response to Menand’s review of the new biography of Arthur Koestler.

Had I not found your blog, and the other info available on line about Ms Zeisel, I would have believed the letter was a put-on. Who could possibly still be passionate about events that happened to them in 1931 in Berlin?

Evidently, Ms. Zeisel can be!

I am a geriatrician. Not all of my patients of 104 are as alert as she appears to be.

If you ever interview her again, please let me know how to access the interview. She seems like a lady one couldn't read too much about.

Best wishes,

Murray Batt

A NOTE FROM ADAM ZEISEL, EVA ZEISEL'S GRANDSON

A few years ago, I met centurian and 20th Century Design Great Eva Zeisel. I first saw her on tv, then read about her in the newspaper, then found out that she shared my birthday and also lived in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

After seeing Eva recently out on the sidewalk with a caretaker and a friend, I wrote to her grandson Adam and asked him about how his grandmother was doing.

He sent me this note:

Hi Eleanor,

Eva is feeling 102 years old. She had some pain issues right before her birthday because she fell trying to walk on her own. Things seem to be better because the pain has subsided and she was in good spirits last time we chatted. November/December is a great time of the year because I get lots of opportunities to come to NYC to visit her.

EvaZeiselOriginals.com is still holding strong even in these tough economic times. A true testiment to Eva's work and the legacy that she has built and allowed me to build from. DWR is have great numbers with the black coffee table and my sales are doing very well for the same table in other finishes, especially espresso. Anyways, EZO is great and I'm as happy as ever building and shaping the company. I recently picked up a wonderful PR consultant, Cristina Moniz, and she has done an amazing job getting me into the Boston Globe, Boston Home, NYC Resident, and a few others in such a short time. We have big plans for the new year; new product releases, new business partnerships, and much more.

Regards,

Adam Zeisel

Eva Zeisel Originals LLC, President