Items

• Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers - Dust Jackets

  Dust jackets mounted originally in frames by Joan Elkin and displayed in the Elkin home in St. Louis, Missouri. One frame contained "The Best American Short Stories of the Century" edited by John Updike which featured "Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers." One frame contained dust jackets featuring "American Jewish Fiction" edited by Gerald Shapiro which featured "Among the Witnesses". "The Granta Book of the American Long Story" edited by Richard Ford featured "The Making of Ashenden.
• Bride and Bridesmaids

  Wedding parties were a regular subject of Joan’s works, and like other subjects she used family photographs as models, but these women are unidentified.
• Bernie Jacobson and Other Men in Front of EADS Bridge

  The reclining man in front is Joan’s older brother Bernie, who was very close to her but who died of cancer at 36. Though the picture of these men most likely would have been taken in Chicago, Joan puts them in front of the Eads Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO.
• Dancers from the Mid America Dance Company (MADCO)

  Watercolor 1992. This is one of three works Joan did from photos she took of dancers from the Mid America Dance Company (MADCO), who danced on stage while Stanley read from his work (See The Rabbi of Lud for more information).  Joan was paid by MADCO to design the dancers’ costumes.
• Joan and Friends Going to a Party

  Left to right: Anne Krone, Dorothy Doyle, Joan Elkin. Anne and Dorothy were close friends of Joan’s for many years.
• Joan and a Neighborhood Friend

  Joan used a photograph of herself and a neighborhood friend, circa 1940, as the source for a number of works depicting them in the same pose with different backgounds.
• Joan and Stanley’s Granddaughters, Jackie, Sammie, and Jessie

  Joan’s grandchildren were the subject of many of her works, showing she looked forward as well as backward in her artwork.
• Molly Elkin Dancing

  Daughter Molly says this painting is from a photo of her dancing to Stanley singing “Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run run run; Run, rabbit run rabbit run run run,” which he would sing faster and faster until it became too exhausting to keep up with the dancing and she would fall down.
• Stanley Elkin Swinging a Stick

  This painting of Stanley in the Parkview neighborhood captures him as a younger man, before he lived in Parkview (where he is depicted here) and before his MS diagnosis.
• Ted Jacobson Playing Cards

  Joan told her daughter Molly that Ted, Joan’s father, rarely had his eyes open in any photo, so he is often depicted this way in her artwork.
• Ted and Dorothy Jacobson, Philip, Bernie and Molly Elkin

  Joan’s parents, Ted and Dorothy Jacobson, are in foreground. Ted is also depicted with grandson Philip Elkin in the back (from Philip’s prom). Philip’s siblings Bernie and Molly Elkin are in the front, showing their respective artistic talents. Ted and Dorothy inspired Stanley’s last novel, Mrs. Ted Bliss.
• Aunt Belle and Her Husband

  This painting, depicting Joan’s aunt and husband, was the last painting she ever worked on. It sat untouched in her studio on the third floor from March 2021, when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, until she died on June 14, 2022.
• David Hadas and Carter Revard

  Joan’s took her depiction of Hadas and Revard in the commissioned “The English Department” painting and placed them in this unidentified setting.
• Hilma Wolitzer and Stanley Elkin

  Fellow novelist Wolitzer was also an instructor at Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference with Stanley and a friend of his and Joan’s.
• Stanley Elkin Facing His House

  Joan sometimes painted people from behind, in this case of her husband facing their Parkview house.
• Bernie, Philip and Stanley Elkin doing Xipe Totec poses

  Inspired by a sculpture she saw at The Met, Joan had a number of relatives and friends pose as the Aztec god of regeneration, took photos of them and made paintings from them. She created two other versions with others modeling the pose in different settings.
• Boswell - Dust Jackets

  Three dust jackets for different editions of Boswell. Two were originally mounted in frames by Joan Elkin and displayed in the Elkin home in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Boswell - Early Typescript Draft

  The first several pages of an early typescript draft of Elkin's first novel "Boswell" with extensive autograph corrections by the author. First published as "The Transient" in The Saturday Evening Post, April 25, 1964.
• Boswell - Random House Press Release

  Random House press release announcing the publication of Elkin's first novel, "Boswell".
• Joe Fox to Stanley Elkin

  Correspondence from Joseph Fox, editor at Random House, to Stanley Elkin concerning the publication of "Boswell", with notes written by Stanley Elkin.