The Statues: John Steinbeck, Carl Yastrzemsk & More Hamptons Icons

If you take a stroll out toward the beach on the western shore of the John Steinbeck Waterfront Park in downtown Sag Harbor, you will see a statue of John Steinbeck and his dog Charley sitting on a bench facing out to the sunset beyond.

That’s what the mayor of Sag Harbor saw in mid-March when he went out there. The pair weren’t there the week before. And John Steinbeck has been dead for half a century.

Earlier, when asked by a reporter from The Sag Harbor Express if he’d seen what’s there, the mayor said that he said he hadn’t. So he went.

Then, when he returned, and was asked about what he saw, he said that the statue of John Steinbeck looked pretty good. “It’s art. Everyone’s going to have an opinion.”

Well, there it is. It’s cast in bronze then painted to look real. Seward Johnson, the celebrated sculptor, had done it. And here’s what he said about it, and about all the famous people he’s sculpted, which is about 300: “I want my work to disappear into the landscape and then take a viewer by surprise.”

It occurs to me that during the last half-century, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of sculptures — some 15 or 20 feet tall — on lawns, particularly on Montauk Highway, throughout the Hamptons.

When I first got here in the 1950s, there were none. Indeed, there were laws against having sculptures on lawns. The laws may even be on the books today, but if they are, they’re widely ignored. And it’s wonderful. Today, in the Hamptons, I think there must be close to 100 sculptures in front of privately owned buildings.

Well, nobody has really remarked upon this change. But now I will. Way back when, I was involved in it personally.

In 1970, I bought a private home in a commercial zone on the Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton and made it into the first Dan’s Papers office. And it had a front lawn.

One day, I had a run-in about signage with the town sign inspector. I’d put up a Dan’s Papers sign on that lawn. And about a month later, I’d added a panel reading “New! Graphics & Design.” Immediately, I got a summons. It was about the panel on top. It made the sign 6 inches taller. I’d have to remove it.

A few days later, I went to Town Hall to pay the fine. Then I asked the Town Clerk a question.

“Why did they do that?”

“Our sign ordinance inspector is merciless,” the clerk said. “She measures everything. We call her ‘Dr. No.’”

“She’s a doctor?”

“A physician.”

A few months later, a friend of mine, Jeff Parsons, told me he’d sculpted a giant boulder into a work of art. He took me to his studio to see it.

“It’s called ‘Contemplation.’”

It was beautiful. And high up, there was a stone seat carved into it upon which you could sit. For contemplation.

“It was commissioned to be out front of Guild Hall in East Hampton,” he told me. “But when I finished and called them, they told me the village wouldn’t let them put anything out there. There were ordinances.”

“Contemplation” was now homeless. I decided to put it on the front lawn of my office. See what would happen. I knew Dr. No would come. When she did, I told her it was just a boulder. She left.

After that, sculptures began to appear on other front lawns. And nobody seemed to mind. Indeed, it seemed that everyone rather loved seeing them.

In 1987, we began featuring works of art on the cover of Dan’s Papers every week. Still do.

In 2020, the number of sculptures on lawns increased dramatically. That year, Schneps Media purchased Dan’s Papers, and Vicki Schneps, the president, drove out, saw some of the sculptures on lawns, and decided on a campaign to bring sculpture to every corner of the community. She partnered with art dealer Lou Meisel, and the campaign became a competition with prizes offered at the end. As a result, the number of statues and sculptures in front of commercial buildings more than doubled.

This was so good. A celebration of the art world in our community. Today, from Amagansett to Westhampton Beach, mostly on the Montauk Highway, all these sculptures sit on front lawns.

The villages and towns have themselves even gotten involved. Two years ago, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen placed an 8-foot-tall platinum bull sculpture in Herrick Park across from the middle school.

Then, in 2022, a historic marker honoring Carl Yastrzemski, the son of a Bridgehampton potato farmer who became a Baseball Hall of Fame star left fielder for the Boston Red Sox, appeared and remains on the baseball field in back of the Bridgehampton High School, which Carl attended.

And so, here is the statue of celebrated Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck, who lived in Sag Harbor for the last 16 years of his life and wrote several of his well-known books including Travels with Charley in a writing studio he built on his back lawn.

On that bench facing the sunset in the downtown park named for him, Steinbeck sits writing longhand on a pad while his dog, with its paw up on John’s sleeve, offers help. The sculpture is called “Assistant Editor.” It’s on a plaque on the statue’s base.

Oh, and then there’s a statue of me.

I’m sitting 7 feet up atop a giant lobster, riding it cowboy style, in front of our current office on the south side of the road where County Road 39 meets up with the end of the Sunrise Highway.

It was erected by friends in 2017 to celebrate my 57 years doing Dan’s Papers. It’s nice that they did that.

And then, of course, there’s a nearly 50-foot-tall sculpture sitting in a farm field in Manorville as you approach the Hamptons. It’s “Stargazer.” You can’t miss it as you drive by. Designed by artist Linda Scott in the late 1980s, the statue depicts a deer reaching for leaves on a branch way up high while staring at the sky. Welcome to the Hamptons.

To read more of Dan Rattiner’s stories, go to DansPapers.com/voices/dan-rattiners-stories.

HELP PRESERVE DAN’S PAPERS, 1960–2024

Stony Brook University intends to digitize the complete set of Dan’s Papers back issues (1960–2024) preserved in the Dan Rattiner Collection within their climate-controlled Whitman Library. A total of $130,000 is needed. Currently, $73,000 has been raised. Every dollar helps. Contribute? Write a tax-deductible check to Stony Brook Foundation marked “for Dan’s Papers archive” and mail to Stony Brook Foundation, 230 Administration, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-1188 or visit sbugiving.com/danspapers.