Herbert Gold


Herbert Gold is an American novelist.

Early life

Gold was born in Cleveland, Ohio in a Russian Jewish family, and raised in Lakewood, a community he was later to memorialize in his first book, Birth of a Hero, published in 1951 by Viking Press. He 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 involved with the burgeoning Beat Generation, which resulted in a lifelong friendship with writer Allen Ginsberg.

Career

Gold won a Fulbright Scholarship and moved to Paris, where he finished his first novel. After that, he moved around as he wrote, traveling to Haiti and Detroit, and hitchhiking all over the United States. He married Edith Zubrin and had two daughters with her, Ann Gold and Judith Gold. They later divorced, and he finally settled in San Francisco, where he became an important fixture in the literary scene.
In 1958 Gold taught English Literature at Cornell University, as Vladimir Nabokov's temporary successor.
Genesis West, was published in the Winter of 1964 with an interview of Herbert Gold by Gordon Lish.

Personal life

Gold was married to Melissa Dilworth and had three children with her: daughter Nina Gold and twin boys Ari Gold and Ethan. After they divorced, she became involved with concert promoter Bill Graham, and died with Graham in a helicopter crash in 1991.
He is a father of five, and a grandfather of six.

Selected works