The Thomas Trail: every contact leaves traces

 

 

 

1973: Middletown, NY

In 1973 Tom visited Dr. [Fritz F.] Blumenthal in Middletown, NY. He had a bad cold.

“X-Ray Consultation. Patient: Thomas Pynchon. Address: Middletown. NY, Chest X-ray. Findings: Free of disease. Impression: Normal chest.”

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Dr. Fritz F. Blumenthal was born 1913 in Mainz, Germany. He studied at German universities in Frankfurt, Freiburg and Würzburg, graduating in 1937 in Berne, Switzerland. He immigrated to the United States in 1938. Next to his medical career in Middletown, NY, Fritz Blumenthal worked as a painter and print artist, exhibiting in various museums in the United States. He also was a poet, creating poems in German as well as in English. Fritz Blumenthal’s mother Recha née Feibelmann was the daughter of a prominent Jewish family with roots in Germany and in the United States. Some of his paintings are displayed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1970s Dr. Blumenthal’s home was located at 30 Wickham Avenue, Middletown, N. Y. 10960; he lived next at 422 Silver Lake – Scotchtown Road, Middletown, NY 10940

Intersection of two “main” streets in Middletown – North Street and East Main Street. So you can say this is the center of town.

Flanders #1, 3 Views 1976. Fritz Blumenthal Born: Mainz, Germany 1913 Died: Middletown, New York 2002. monotype on paper image: 18 1/4 x 14 in. (46.4 x 35.6 cm.); sheet… Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of the artist