Morton "Mort" Steinau

Soon after Morton Steinau graduated from Louisville Male High School in Kentucky in January 1935, he and Bela Martin, another graduate, hitchhiked in bitter April weather from Louisville to Black Mountain College where Robert Wunsch was teaching English. They remained for two months.

Before joining the Black Mountain faculty, Wunsch had taught English in Louisville, and Steinau recalled his introducing them to authors such as Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Zora Neale Hurston and Ernest Hemingway. He would meet with a group of five or six students at the Y.M.C.A. where he had a room to discuss literature and drama.

The appreciative seniors dedicated their high school annual to him. Although Steinau had little expectation that he would be able to attend college, Black Mountain accepted him at a greatly reduced fee. Steinau recalled that he was impressed by very small college as well as the "huge" Y.M.C.A buildings in which it was housed.

Having grown up in a community where everyone was alike, the diversity of the community – refugees speaking broken English, people who "didn’t believe in Jesus Christ," others with "different kinds of skin," those who smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey – were an intriguing new "menu."

At Black Mountain Steinau took a general curriculum: John Rice’s Plato and Greek classes, chemistry, ethics, literature, dramatics, philosophy, dance, music, and writing. He recalled that the only Greek he learned in Rice’s Greek class was the first sentence of the Bible. Otherwise, the class was much like the Plato class in which various themes were discussed.

His primary study was literature with Joseph Martin, his graduation advisor. In his last year as a student at Black Mountain, Steinau was Acting Assistant Treasurer. When he graduated, he was appointed Assistant Treasuer. He travelled to Laguna Beach, California that summer where he and Barbara Hill, a Black Mountain student, were married.

They then returned to the college where they lived until January 1943 when they decided the time had come to make a break with their college home. Their daughter Joan was born in 1940 and the second of their three children was due. On leaving Black Mountain, Steinau worked with Time/Life as traffice manager in the Production Department at the Cameo Press in Philadelphia, where the magazines were printed.

The Steinaus lived for a year in Philadelphia and then for nine years in Palmyra, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. When he left Time/Life, the Steinaus moved to Connecticut where he had a handmade furniture business, hoping to support his family. After two years, he entered the life insurance business.

He retired in 1978. Morton and Barbara Steinau lived for five years at the East River Farm, a commune, in Guilford, Connecticut. When Barbara Hill Steinau retired at age seventy from her position as director of a pre-school, the Steinaus moved to Cape Cod.

At that time the Gulf War was underway and the Steinaus organized a vigil, an effective introduction to the community. They have organized a bartering co-op, and stage antimilitary protests and protests against American wars including the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Relationships

Wife: Fellow BMC student, Barbara Hill

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Writings about Morton can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers:

2017.40.281 Clifford Odets "waiting for lefty" poster shared Morton is playing both Harry Fatt and Grady.

2017.40.252 March 1939 bulletin, "Morton Steinau, a fourth year student, is acting as assistant treasurer for the College. He replaces Norman Betts Weston who left the community last January in the Harvard School of Business."

2017.40.254 May 1940 bulletin, "Mr and Mrs Morton Steinau (Barbara Hall) announce the birth of a daughter, Joan."

2017.40.063a-b February 1942 bulletin, "Hospitalization is not in effect. Faculty sickness should be reported to Morton Steinau, Chairman of Hospitalization. Note: The college is liable within the limits of the Hospitalization plan and not beyond except for special medical expenses. (i.e., the College will not be responsible for private rooms but only for ward rooms.)"

2017.40.077a-b September 1942 bulletin, "The Lowinskys will live in South Lodge until and outside stairway to the Steinau apartment at Black Dwarf has been built"

2017.40.022 April 1943 bulletin, "Born to Mr and Mrs Morton Steinau on March 20 a son. He has been named Peter."

2017.40.102a-e April 1943 bulletin, "Morton Steinau writes from 6402 Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia: “I like working with Time. I’m learning about magazine production in a hurry. It’s interesting and very complicated. Add to that the fact that Time is produced- because of its news nature- at the greatest speed of any magazine in the world, and you have a prospect that is frightening to a newcomer. I work solely on the foreign editions: Time Canadian, Time South American, and Time Overseas. These books carry different ads, are printed on lighter paper, and go by air express. Winston Churchill and Douglas MacArthur get their copies of Time almost as quickly as you get yours at Black Mountain.”"

2017.40.143a-d February 1944 bulletin, "Morton Steinau from Philadelphia: “You will perhaps recall that I was laid low the first part of December with- so the doc thought- an infected knee. On December 31, the Army medics had another name for it: prepatellar bursitis, acute…subsequent trips to the doc have revealed only bursitis affects different people very differently. As little exercise as possible is the chief cure. With some people the inflammation and stiffness clear up and go away completely after a few months. And the joint thereafter is as good as it ever was; with some, it recurs with any undue exercise or strain; with some, it recurs anyhow; in a few cases it gets progressively worse, and if it gets bad enough the bursa has to be taken on. Leaving a quite stiff joint (knee, heel, shoulder, elbow- whichever bursa went on the fritz)….So far as I can tell, my knee is coming around ok, only a little stiffness remains. In the meantime I walk as little as possible, and wait.”"

2017.40.148a-e March 1944 bulletin, "Morton Steinau has been made Distribution Manager of Time Magazine for the Eastern Seaboard."

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Morton in 1997 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC – Robert Wunsch at Rollins and Louisville Male High School – visit to BMC with Bela Martin – first impression of college and Lee Hall – John Rice’s “Plato” class – general BMC curriculum – description of Lee Hall – Josef Albers – John Rice as personality in community – John Rice’s resignation – BMC faculty and followers – Ted Dreier as fundraiser and personality in community – study with Joe Martin and Fred Mangold – Xanti Schawinsky performances – William McCleery plays – Josef Albers drawing class – John Evarts in community – marriage to Barbara Hill – Jalowetz family – Allan Sly music classes and English folk dancing teacher – graduation process – Richard Porter suicide – death of Frank Nacke – death of Mark Dreier – Professor Cole, auditor – role as business manager – Studies Building construction – Bas Allen – John Dewey visit – Aldous Huxley visit