John Sloan’s New York, 1906–13

Abstract

John Sloan, illustrator, print-maker, etcher, painter, modest gastronome and lover of stimulating conversation, could also write a little. Although he kept a journal for only two short periods of his long life (he died in his eighty-first year), he provides intriguing glimpses of his creative skills and of New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bruce St John’s edition of the Sloan diaries — regrettably the only one available — gives little explanation about editorial selection, though St John does admit to excluding whole days without ellipsis to keep the version short.¹ This compilation covers a period of eight years, of which the last two are a meagre record — a mere thirty pages, whereas each preceding year occupied ninety pages or so with an average of twenty-three to twenty-four days a month receiving comment. The editor tamely suggests that Sloan’s increased endeavours on his art work accounts for the waning interest in his diary, and he fails to mention that Sloan began one again in 1948. Except for the dedicated keeper, diaries often tend to be desultory affairs, and one should first ask why Sloan kept a diary at all rather than criticise him for lack of continuity.