Some say that if Dublin were ever destroyed, it could be rebuilt based on James Joyce's Ulysses. E.L. Konigsburg's fans might say that New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art could be reconstructed from her blueprint, as described in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Last month, the author's family, friends and colleagues filed through the medieval corridor of the Met en route to the Patrons Lounge to celebrate her life. We stood at the foot of the grand staircase. We paraded past the iron gates of the choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid. We inhabited her world. As we arrived in the Patrons Lounge, the pink glow of sunset cast the Upper West Side in silhouette. Paul Konigsburg, the first-born of the author's three children, said that in 1965, his mother deposited him weekly at the Met, along with his sister, Laurie (the model for Claudia Kincaid), and his brother, Ross (on whom Jamie is based) while she attended art class. Their mother's only rule was they had to stay together. Paul had three of his own: 1) visit the mummy; 2) visit the knight in armor; 3) "after those two, I didn't care what they did."
Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, spoke of the hallowed halls of Simon & Schuster, lined with photos of prize-winning authors and acclaimed books. "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was my book," he said. He quoted a line from it all too resonant for his audience: "The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you."
Ginee Seo told us about working with Konigsburg after her loss, in quick succession, of her beloved husband and her career-long editor, Jean Karl. Seo was aware of undergoing what she calls "the test," adding that people often didn't realize they were being tested until its conclusion. (Seo passed, clearly.) After Seo told the author all the things she admired about her new manuscript, Konigsburg said, "Tell me what you didn't like." Seo said the author was not falsely modest: "She was a rock star. She knew it. She enjoyed it. She was funny about it. She'd say, 'I can't wait to take off my pantyhose and fart.' " She'd go to Denny's at midnight, dressed to the nines. She performed what's affectionately called "The C--t Monologue" in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues in 2002 at the Wilson Center for the Arts in Jacksonville, Fla. and told the Florida Times-Union, "I like to try new things."
The fountains from Claudia and Jamie's Met are gone now, Paul Konigsberg pointed out. So is the automat where the three Konigsberg children bought snacks during their mother's weekly art lessons. E.L. Konigsburg was born in New York City, and she outlived her 82-year-old heroine, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Her art lives on, for generations of readers and explorers. --Jennifer M. Brown