{{Short description|American novelist (1924–2023)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}} {{lede too short|date=November 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Herbert Gold | birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|03|09}} | birth_place = Lakewood, Ohio, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|11|19|1924|03|09}} | death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | education = Sorbonne | alma_mater = Columbia University (AB, AM) | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Edith Zubrin|1948|1956|end = divorced}} * {{marriage|Melissa Dilworth|1968|1975|end = divorced}} }} | children = 5, including Ari Gold }}
'''Herbert Gold''' (March 9, 1924 – November 19, 2023) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer and poet. Originally from Cleveland, he studied at Columbia University in New York City before serving in the U.S. Army in World War II. After the War he settled in San Francisco, California but did not become a member of the Beat Generation. A prolific author, he wrote 29 novels and works of essays, short stories and poems in his long life.
==Early life== Herbert Gold was born on March 9, 1924, in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, to a Russian Jewish family.<ref name = Grimes>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/books/herbert-gold-dead.html|title = Herbert Gold, Novelist Who Dissected Love and Marriage, Dies at 99|last = Grimes|first = William|date = November 20, 2023|accessdate = November 20, 2023|url-access = limited|newspaper = The New York Times}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Herbert Gold Biography|url=https://www.orrt.org/gold/|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=Ohio Reading Road Trip}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Teicholz|first=Tom|date=August 17, 2008|title=THE IMMORTAL MR. GOLD|url=https://jewishjournal.com/uncategorized/144/the-immortal-mr-gold/|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=Jewish Journal|language=en-US}}</ref> His parents were Samuel S. and Frieda (Frankel) Gold. His father ran a fruit store and later a grocery store.<ref name="TPR">Robert Kaiser: ''[https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/31/carnival-and-chaos-an-interview-with-herbert-gold/ Carnival and Chaos: An Interview with Herbert Gold]''. In: The Paris Review, May 31, 2018.</ref> Gold memorialized his hometown in his first book, ''Birth of a Hero'' (1951). He attended Taft Elementary and Lakewood High School.<ref>{{Cite web|last=McFerrin|first=Linda Watanabe|date=November 17, 2015|title=Literary Salon: Herbert Gold, Author of When a Psychopath Falls in Love|url=http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-herbert-gold-author-of-when-a-psychopath-falls-in-love/|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=Left Coast Writers|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Herbert Gold papers, 1951-1984|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079721/|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=Columbia University Libraries Archive Collection, Columbia University}}</ref>
Gold moved to New York City at age 17 after several of his poems had been accepted by New York literary magazines. While there, he studied philosophy at Columbia University and became affiliated with the burgeoning Beat Generation, which resulted in a lifelong friendship with writer Allen Ginsberg. His studies were interrupted when he served in the United States Army from 1943 until 1946, during World War II.<ref name=":3" />
In 1946, Gold graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. degree,<ref name=":3" /> and M.A. degree in 1948.
Despite being intertwined with the literary history of San Francisco which greatly defined the Beat Generation, Gold did not consider himself to have ever been a member of this group of writers.<ref name=goldresidency /><ref name=goldresidence /> In a 2017 interview with ''The Washington Post'' journalist Jeff Weiss, Gold was referred to as a "Beat-adjacent novelist."<ref name=goldresidency /><ref name=goldresidence />
==Career== {{expand section|date = November 2023}} Gold won a Fulbright Scholarship (1948–1951) and moved to Paris with his new wife Edith Zubrin, and while in Paris he finished his first novel.<ref name=":2" /> He attended classes at the Sorbonne in Paris during his Fulbright Scholarship.<ref name = Grimes/>
After that, he moved around as he wrote, traveling to Haiti and Detroit, and hitchhiking all over the United States. He finally settled in San Francisco, where he became a fixture in the literary scene. In 1958 Gold taught English literature at Cornell University, as Vladimir Nabokov's successor.
''Genesis West'' (Vol. 6), was published in the Winter of 1964 with an interview of Herbert Gold by Gordon Lish.
Gold's final publication, the poetry collection ''Fathers Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems'', co-written with Ari Gold, is forthcoming from Rare Bird Books in March 2024.<ref>https://www.amazon.com/Father-Verses-Sons-Correspondence-Poems/dp/164428426X Retrieved 20 March 2024.</ref>
==Personal life== Gold was married to writer and professor Edith Zubrin from 1948 until 1956, with their marriage ending in divorce.<ref name="CJAN">''Herbert Gold''. In: Joel Shatzky, Michael Taub: ''Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook''. Greenwood Press, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-31329-462-4}}, p. 116 ff.</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=February 12, 2000|title=UIC Professor Edith Zubrin Harnett|work=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-02-12-0002120110-story.html|access-date=April 19, 2021}}</ref> Gold had two daughters by this marriage, Ann and Judith.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="CJAN" /> Edith Zubrin died in 2000.<ref name=":1" />
Gold was married to the daughter of J. Richardson Dilworth, Melissa Dilworth, from 1968 until 1975, with whom he had three children: daughter Nina Gold and twin boys Ari Gold and Ethan Gold.<ref name="CJAN" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=October 28, 1991|title=Melissa Gold, 47, Aide For California Causes|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/28/obituaries/melissa-gold-47-aide-for-california-causes.html|access-date=April 19, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After they divorced, Melissa remarried and later became involved with concert promoter Bill Graham.<ref name=":0" /> She died with Graham in a helicopter crash in 1991.<ref name=":0" />
In contrast to many in the Beat Generation, Gold was a resident of San Francisco's more conservative, tourist-friendly Russian Hill neighborhood, where he lived in the same apartment for over 60 years.<ref name=goldresidency>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-beat-generation/|title=The Beat Generation|first=Jeff|last=Weiss|newspaper=Washington Post|date=June 30, 2017|accessdate=December 5, 2021}}</ref><ref name=goldresidence>{{cite news|url=https://sfist.com/2017/07/05/catching_up_with_five_surviving_mem/|title=Catching Up With Five Surviving Members Of the Beat Generation In Northern California|publisher=SFist|date=July 5, 2021|accessdate=December 5, 2021|archive-date=December 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205215451/https://sfist.com/2017/07/05/catching_up_with_five_surviving_mem/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He died there on November 19, 2023, at the age of 99.<ref name = Grimes/>
==Publications== === Books === * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=Birth of a Hero|publisher=Viking Press|year=1951|isbn=978-0670169252}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=Room Clerk, Original Title: The Prospect Before Us|publisher=Signet Skid-Row|year=1955}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZfAI9dAHmYC|title=The Man Who Was Not With It|publisher=Little, Brown|year=1956|isbn=0-912697-69-5}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxRLAAAAMAAJ|title=The Optimist: A Novel|publisher=Little, Brown|year=1959|series=An Atlantic Monthly Press Book}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=Therefore Be Bold, A Novel|publisher=Dial Press|year=1960}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KuOeAAAAIAAJ|title=Salt: A Novel|publisher=Dial Press|year=1963}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KHyTKDnz0yAC|title=Fathers: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir|year=1966|isbn=0-87795-550-6}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rrjbupj8e0gC|title=The Great American Jackpot|publisher=Random House|year=1969}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=My Last Two Thousand Years|publisher=Random House|year=1972|isbn=978-0394470986|type=autobiography}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=The Young Prince and the Magic Cone|publisher=Doubleday|year=1973|isbn=0-385-01519-4}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=Swiftie the Magician|publisher=McGraw Hill|year=1974|isbn=9780070236455}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bl7nLaG6i_IC|title=Waiting for Cordelia|publisher=Arbor House|year=1977|isbn=9780877951544|location=New York City, New York}}<ref>{{Cite news|last=Gold|first=Herbert|date=May 22, 1977|title=Waiting For Cordelia|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1977/05/22/waiting-for-cordelia/1adc4cf3-edc2-4300-8e05-a864908ba6da/|url-access=limited|access-date=April 19, 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=Slave Trade|publisher=Arbor House|year=1979|isbn=978-0877952176|location=New York City, New York}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rugZVKPAnEEC|title=He/She|publisher=Arbor House|year=1980|isbn=9780877952640|location=New York City, New York}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXceAAAAMAAJ|title=Family: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir|publisher=Arbor House|year=1981|isbn=9780877953326|series=Primus library of contemporary Americana|location=New York City, New York}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSyQvgAACAAJ|title=True Love|publisher=Arbor House|year=1982|isbn=9780877954255|location=New York City, New York}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OnUeAAAAMAAJ|title=Mister White Eyes: A Novel|publisher=Arbor House|year=1984|isbn=9780877956365|location=New York City, New York}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRseAAAAMAAJ|title=A Girl of Forty|publisher=D.I. Fine|year=1986|isbn=9780917657634|location=New York City, New York}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlVqAAAAMAAJ|title=Best Nightmare on Earth: A Life in Haiti|publisher=Prentice Hall Press|others=Jan Morris (introduction)|year=1991|isbn=9780133723274}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XO5CN81TcEC|title=Bohemia: Digging the Roots of Cool|publisher=Touchstone|year=1994|isbn=9780671886080}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yox-BAAAQBAJ|title=She Took My Arm As If She Loved Me: A Novel|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|year=2014|isbn=9781466883307}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlYhAQAAIAAJ|title=Still Alive!: A Temporary Condition|publisher=Arcade Pub.|year=2008|isbn=9781559708708|type=memoir}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=When a Psychopath Falls in Love|publisher=Jorvik Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0988412279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOYergEACAAJ|location=Portland, Oregon}} * ''Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems'', co-written with Ari Gold (2024), Red Bird Press.<ref>https://www.amazon.com/Father-Verses-Sons-Correspondence-Poems/dp/164428426X Retrieved March 20, 2024.</ref>
=== Essays and short stories === * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=Love and Like|year=1960|type=short stories}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Adams|first=Robert Martin|date=Summer 1960|title=Book Review: The Short Stories of Herbert Gold|url=https://hudsonreview.com/issue/summer-1960/|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=The Hudson Review|language=en-US}}</ref> * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|title=The Age of Happy Problems|year=1962|type=essays}} * {{Cite book|last=Gold|first=Herbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AOBQAQAAIAAJ|title=The Magic Will: Stories & Essays|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=1971|isbn=9781412837699}} * ''A Walk on the West Side: California on the Brink'', Arbor House, 1981. Stories and essays. * ''Stories of Misbegotten Love'', with Don Asher (Capra Press, 1985) * ''Lovers & Cohorts: Twenty-Seven Stories'' (Donald I. Fine, 1986)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0324989}} * Herbert Gold in ''News from the Republic of Letters'': ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20050728140905/http://www.bu.edu/trl/1415/gold.html Bewitched, Bothered and Begoogled: Nos. 14/15] ** [https://web.archive.org/web/20060921021822/http://www.bu.edu/trl/13/gold.html The Tragedy You Can Dance To: No. 13] * [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8g44nq1/?query=Herbert%2520Gold Finding Aid to the Herbert Gold Papers, 1942-2011], The Bancroft Library * {{discogs artist|Herbert Gold}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Herbert}} Category:1924 births Category:2023 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American Jews Category:American expatriates in France Category:American male novelists Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Jewish American novelists Category:Novelists from Ohio Category:PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners Category:Writers from Lakewood, Ohio Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:Writers from Cleveland Category:Novelists from San Francisco Category:United States Army soldiers