Abigail Folger: A Time In New York Part II

Continued research into the life of Abigail Folger has taken me in several directions. This post will highlight this quest with emphasis on Abigail's life in New York prior to moving to Los Angeles. In my earlier post on this period of Abigail's time in New York, I uncovered a personal letter she wrote to a friend, detailing both her employment and interests in New York City, as well as her excitement over her relationship with Voytek Frykowski. (See the post here on the blog, Abigail Folger: A Time In New York, Dec. 2, 2020).

Prior to leaving San Francisco for New York, Abigail worked at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum. (This museum was the old university art gallery building, and should not be confused with the concrete modernist structure which succeeded it, opening in the fall of 1970.) In an effort to track down her exact dates of employment at Berkeley, I contacted the university HR office for help. A review of their records was provided to me, looking at the years 1965-1969 for reference. Abigail did not appear in any of those years as a paid employee of the university. It was explained to me, however, that she was likely paid by a third party, or may have been an unpaid volunteer.

University of California Berkeley Old Art Museum where Abigail worked, helping to organize the Fine Arts Council.

Interior of the new Berkeley Art Museum, which opened in November of 1970. SF Chronicle photo.

It is known that Abigail's boss at Berkeley was the iconic Peter Howard Selz. He is famously quoted in the press after the murders as saying that Abigail did not "act, look, or dress like a hippie." In an effort to locate Selz' papers and the museum archive, I made contact with his daughter, who said she did not have information on Abigail, but did direct me to the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. 

Peter Selz, Abigail's boss at Berkeley.

Looking through every relevant file folder and photo in the archives during the time Abigail would have worked there, I discovered nothing. The only possible indication in the records appeared at the bottom of typed correspondence, where the typist leaves his/her initials. On many of these the initials "AF" appeared--a tantalizing possibility, but unfortunately nothing significant to showcase her employment prior to relocating to New York.

Teaming up with her friend, Andreas (Andy) Brown--a fellow San Francisco resident--the pair travelled to New York in August of 1967. Brown was finalizing the purchase of the famed Gotham Book Mart from Frances Steloff, and offered Abigail employment, as she probed the other side of life and existed on the edge of the thriving literary and artistic scene there.

I discovered the archives of the Gotham Book Mart at the University of Texas at Austin Harry Ransom Center. This archive is extensive, and houses the records of the business, photographs, and much more. After extensive research, I did not locate any photos of Abigail, but I did find absolute proof that she did, in fact, work at the bookstore. I found the weekly pay and tax records of the staff, and have identified that both Brown and Abigail began work at the bookstore on the same date.

Abigail's pay sheet for the entire time she worked at the Gotham Book Mart. Note the short duration of employment.  This document, and that of Andreas Brown, following, courtesy of  Gotham Book Mart Records, Harry Ransom Center, the University of Texas at Austin , Container LSF36 Subseries B. Financial Records.

Andreas Brown pay sheet. He began work at the bookstore at the same time as Abigail.

At the top of Abigail's statement, we see that she was a temporary New York resident, and was taxed as such. This no doubt would likely indicate that she planned to return to California at some point. In fact, her lease on her Upper West Side apartment would last only from August of 1967 to August of 1968. Her home address when she began work at the bookstore was listed as the San Francisco address of her mother.

It is interesting here that Abigail's employment was of such a short duration. In fact, a number of weeks of her future planned employment had been crossed out. It almost seems abrupt. Although there is no concrete proof of it here, we may wonder if this would have been the time she met Voytek Frykowski. Traditionally, it has been said that Abigail first met writer Jerzy Kosinski at the Gotham Book Mart, who then introduced Abigail to Voytek at a later time--presumably at a literary party around Christmas time in 1967. But when exactly did she meet Kosinski?

To answer this question I consulted the Ed Sanders archives at Princeton University. After an extensive review of all of the Folger and Frykowski files in the Princeton collection, I discovered little that I did not already know. The only thing of note that I found was from an interview Ed Sanders conducted with Jerzy Kosinski on Nov. 21, 1970. This interview, like all of Sanders' material, was hand written on blank sheets of paper. Here are a couple of quotes from that interview:

"Reasons  Kosinski introduced Gibby to Voytek--

1) He was interested in learning English & they both were fluent in French.

2) $"

"Kosinski met Gibby at party when she was working at G.B. Mart. Then, later, he introduced her to Frykowski."

"According to Jerzy Kosinski, Abigail made $130,000 [per year] after taxes, but only spent about $12,000."

Ed Sanders in 1968.

Novelist Jerzy Kosinski, who introduced Abigail Folger to Voytek Frykowski, was also instrumental in bringing both artist Witold-K and Voytek to America and ultimately into the orbit of Abigail.

The common denominator in this New York period for all of these individuals was the Gotham Book Mart. To be sure, it was here that the initial meeting between Abigail and Kosinski took place, initiating a cascade of events that would ultimately culminate on Cielo Drive in August of 1969.

Interior view of Gotham Book Mart as it looked when Abigail Folger worked there. This and the following photo of Andreas Brown courtesy Gotham Book Mart Records, Harry Ransom Center, the University of Texas at Austin, Container 31.4 Subseries A, Gotham Book Mart Operations.

Andreas Brown (left) at a Gotham Book Mart literary party book signing. It was at exactly such an event where Abigail met Kosinski.

To better illustrate this period in Abigail's life, I turn to the Kosinski novel, Blind Date, to offer some guidance:

"Later you started writing to Woytek, urging him to defect to the West. Your letters turned our life upside down. Suddenly, all Woytek talked about was Levanter --[Kosinski] his closest friend, already settled in America, while he was wasting his time with me. He imagined himself with you in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles...So I lost him to you, Levanter. And to Gibby, that American heiress you found for him. And look how it all ended!"

Levanter had telephoned Gibby and told her he had to see her alone to talk about Woytek. They met at a cafe near Centeral Park. "How is Woytek's English coming along?" he asked. "It's improving,' she said. "But surely you didn't ask me to meet you to talk about Woytek's English." "I didn't. It's about the two of you." Gibby looked apprehensive, almost panicky. "Did Woytek ask you to talk to me?" "No."

"What is it then?" She stared at him, her eyes magnified by the thick lenses of her glasses. Levanter was having difficulty beginning.

"I know you and Woytek have no secrets from each other," she encouraged. "You're his only close friend in New York. You can be direct with me."

"Ever since I introduced you to Woytek," said Levanter, trying to sound casual, "you and he have lived in that same tiny West Side studio. yet you have unlimited charge accounts at all of the best shops in town, your wardrobe is made by the finest designers, and your jewelry is worth thousands of dollars. Woytek doesn't have a penny. If he wants to buy a pack of cigarettes, he has to borrow it from his friends. He's wearing the clothing he arrived in from Eastern Europe because he can't afford anything new. It looks to me as if you've suddenly turned into a penny-pinching shrew, acting as if you were on your own."

Gibby shifted in her chair. "What's wrong with being on your own?" "Nothing. But you aren't exactly on your own. You come from one of the richest families in the country and have a trust fund that yields a great deal of money. On top of that, there have been large financial gifts and inheritances over the years. Still, with all your wealth, you won't help Woytek, the man you love." "I won't give Woytek money, if that's what you mean. I don't want people to think that the one man I want is the one I have to pay for," she said stubbornly.

"Are you going to live your life with Woytek according to what other people might think?" asked Levanter. Gibby looked away. For a moment, Levanter thought she wasn't listening. He grew impatient. "If you're so concerned with how people think, why do you tell them everything about yourself? Why do you say that before you met Woytek your life oscillated between drinks and sweets, with pot in between? That, intellectually, Woytek is the first man you haven't had to talk down to? That only with Woytek can you be open and honest?"

Gibby interrupted. "Woytek loves me for what I am. What I do with my money is my own business." 

"But not what you do with Woytek," said Levanter. "I feel responsible for him. I arranged a blind date for you and Woytek so he could have someone intelligent to speak French with, since that was the only other language he knew then. I didn't expect him to be destroyed. With you, he's vegetating, but he loves you too much to leave you. It seems to me that you are preventing both of you from enjoying your money and the life it could offer: the world of travel, of new experiences, of ideas, of people."

"I don't want Woytek to be known as a man without a profession, living off my money," said Gibby. "I don't care what kind of work he does, as long as he supports himself like everybody else." 

"But he's your lover, and you're not like everybody else," Levanter said sharply. "you are unusually rich. You and your lover are thereby excluded from the fate of the ordinary. Woytek was once a wealthy and educated man. Then he became a refugee. He's been here only a year--half of which he's lived with you .He doesn't know English well enough to pursue his profession. You quit your own job when you fell in love with him. Why do you want him to work? Don't you understand that getting a job would keep him from studying English? And what do you suppose he could do? Don't try to answer me," said Levanter. "Just listen for a minute."

Gibby glared at him.

"All Woytek is suited for at the moment is menial labor: parking cars, scraping paint off ship decks, cleaning bars, [all things that Kosinski did when he arrived in New York from Poland in 1957, while working on his Ph.D dissertation at Columbia University and before he met Mary Hayward-Weir] something like that. He could earn about as much in one month as you spend in one week on restaurant tips when you take your rich cousins to lunch. And it costs you more to pay your monthly phone bill for long-distance calls to your college chums than Woytek would make in an entire year."

Levanter paused. Gibby did not speak.

"What is your reasoning?" Levanter asked. "Do you believe that as long as he's penniless everyone will think Woytek stays with you for yourself, whereas if you give him money, everyone will think he loves you just for the money?"

Gibby remained silent.

Levanter went on. "Woytek was a superb athlete. He used to play soccer and basketball and was one of the best swimmers in his country. He loved company and enjoyed being surrounded by creative people. Now he's cooped up in your ground-floor apartment where he can't even see daylight, and he can't afford to get out. You've made him your prisoner."

"Maybe I should take him to California," Gibby said, more to herself than to Levanter. She went on without waiting to hear Levanter's opinion. "My family is there, and Woytek knows people in Hollywood. There are also those film directors he knew in Europe," she mused. "Near them, Woytek might regain his own sense of accomplishment and pride--and possibly find work."

She looked at Levanter, expecting some response, but now he said nothing. (Jerzy Kosinski: Blind Date. Grove Press, p 166-169. 1977. Emphasis is mine).

Of course it could simply be Kosinski's rhetorical license at play here, but the passage where he says that Abigail left her job (presumably at the Gotham Book Mart) when she met Voytek may indeed be true. Her early resignation from employment at the book store was obviously after she met Kosinski and may have been prompted by the early introduction to Voytek. Taken together, her total employment at Gotham Book mart was only a few weeks, and subsequent employee reports for 1968 do not have her listed as an employee. Although Abigail did not need to earn a living from employment, she nonetheless accepted payment for her work as a clerk at the book store--perhaps this was a requirement.

BRINGING TOGETHER THE FUTURE PEOPLE OF CIELO DRIVE

At the time Abigail was working at the Gotham Book Mart, another interesting parallel was taking place in New York. Roman Polanski's film, Rosemary's Baby began filming scenes in New York at several locations--one of these was at the Gotham Book Mart with Mia Farrow. My current research did not reveal if Abigail was present during the filming--possibly as a background actor--but this possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. One thing that is certain is that Abigail's Upper West Side apartment was only a short walk from the Dakota Apartment Building where some exterior shots of the film were made.

The famous--or infamous--Dakota Apartment Building where Roman Polanski filmed exterior scenes for Rosemary's Baby when Abigail lived nearby.

Photographer Hatami, Roman Polanski, and Sharon Tate on the set of Rosemary's Baby in New York, 1967.

Mia Farrow outside the Dakota during filming of Rosemary's Baby, 1967.

Abigail and Voytek in Central Park, New York.

Although it is not certain, it is tempting to think that since Roman Polanski was friends with Jerzy Kosinski and Voytek Frykowski-- and the three were in New York during the filming of Rosemary's Baby-- that the three of them could have reunited on the set. Sharon Tate also visited the set in New York and was widely photographed there. Of course Abigail was there, and if both she and Voytek had already been introduced, it may be possible that Sharon, Abigail, and Voytek could have met. This could also have included Mia Farrow, who has been reported in some literature to have been in contact with Abigail, presumably in Los Angeles later on. One notable absence was artist Witold-K, who was in Paris at the time. Kosinski would help him come to America, and ultimately into the orbit of Abigail and Voytek, in 1968. Witold-K eventually would set up his small painting studio in Abigail's apartment and would dedicate to her one of the paintings he produced there.

To try to answer the above question, I finally was able to make contact with Roman Polanski. This spring I learned of an address where Roman could be contacted, so I wrote him a letter asking for any information he would care to share about Abigail and Voytek, and their association with both he and Sharon. In the letter I left my email, and about six weeks later I received a response. Through his personal assistant, Roman suggested that I read his autobiography for all things related to Abigail. This I said I had done several times. I was assured that Mr. Polanski had nothing else to offer to satisfy my query. However, I left the door open to him should anything else previously unpublished materialize.

Another interesting discovery was to be found in an interview of Jerzy Kosinski in 1977 with Studs Terkel about the book Blind Date. In the interview, Kosinski said that Abigail was a "student of his." What he means by this he does not say, but it may imply that Abigail could have been studying creative writing with Kosinski privately, as she was an English literature graduate. Kosinski also told Terkel that he introduced Abigail to Voytek in New York because, "they were nice people and they both spoke French." Contrast this with what Kosinski told Ed Sanders about that introduction in 1970 (see above).

Although this present research took several months to compile, it did not yield a surplus of information for my subject. At first this may seem unfortunate. But one thing it does make clear is that--by a process of elimination--certain archives may be crossed off the list of potential sources of information on Abigail and Voytek. My project in this regard is to chronicle the lives of Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski. And long before they became famous victims of the Manson Family, these people had lives that have been largely overlooked.