Hy Sobiloff
Hyman Jordan Sobiloff, born in 1912 in Fall River, Massachusetts, was an accomplished poet, businessman, and philanthropist. After facing health challenges, he completed his education at Boston University and attended New York University. Sobiloff's successful career in business allowed him to engage deeply in the arts and charitable initiatives, including founding the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He was also instrumental in establishing a national allergy research foundation. Despite his various pursuits, poetry remained his primary passion, with notable poets like Allen Tate and James Wright contributing introductions to his works. Sobiloff published five volumes of poetry from 1948 to 1971, with themes centered around childhood and the human experience, characterized by straightforward yet thoughtful language. His artistic vision extended to film, producing short films that connected with his poetic themes, including the award-winning "Montauk." Sobiloff passed away from a heart attack in 1970, leaving behind a legacy that intertwines his literary contributions with his philanthropic efforts.
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Hy Sobiloff
Playwright
- Born: December 16, 1912
- Birthplace: Fall River, Massachusetts
- Died: August 1, 1970
Biography
Hyman Jordan Sobiloff was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1912, one of four children. Plagued with allergies, he attended high school in Tucson, Arizona, and the University of Arizona, although he ultimately received the B. A. degree from Boston University. He also attended New York University. Sobiloff married Adelaide Goldstein; they had one son, Stephen.
Sobiloff’s considerable success in business gave him the means to pursue art and philanthropy. He was chairman of several nation-wide companies and founded the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in the same state. He also founded a national foundation for research on allergies. Despite the demands of these enterprises, however, Sobiloff was seriously devoted to his poetry. The quality of the attention he gave it is attested by the fact that poets of the caliber of Allen Tate, Conrad Aiken, and James Wright were willing to write introductions to his work.
His first volume, When Children Played as Kings and Queens, was privately printed in 1948. In it, Sobiloff introduced themes that he considered throughout his writing career; particularly he was interested in recreating and examining children and the world in which they live. He did so in direct and unassuming language that characterized his work throughout his life. Some readers of his later volumes have described him as a “primitive,” but in fact his simple language was the result of careful consideration and poetic choices, as some of his comments to his poet friends make clear.
Sobiloff published a total of five volumes of poems between 1948 and 1971, the last—Hooting Across the Silence—published posthumously in 1971. With increasing depth, the poems examine ways in which the poetic vision can rise from a child’s direct and unself-conscious sensibilities. The resulting poems are sometimes playful but always insightful about the call of poetry and the world the poet inhabits.
Similarly, Sobiloff’s four short films are closely tied to his poetic vision. The first, the prize-winning Montauk (1959), deals with Montauk Point, Long Island, where Sobiloff had a home. It is the setting for a well-known poem by Walt Whitman, to whom Sobiloff is sometimes compared; Sobiloff set many of his own poems there. One of the other films, Speak to Me Child (1962), presents a number of Sobiloff’s poems about childhood. The variety of Sobiloff’s interests and successes should not obscure the fact that poetry was his central concern and writing it well controlled his attention. He died of a heart attack in 1970.