This obituary for Ron Schreiber appeared in The Boston Globe on 8/31/04
Ron Schreiber; was poet, editor, English professor
By Tom Long, Globe Staff
August 31, 2004
Ron Schreiber was as direct and accessible as the poetry he wrote. ''His poems had great lucidity, integrity, and simplicity," said Linda Dittmar, a fellow English professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
And the work was very much like the man.
''He was very approachable and nonjudgmental," she said.
Mr. Schreiber, 70, who published several poetry collections in addition to teaching at UMass for more than three decades, died of pancreatic cancer Aug. 22 at his Cambridge home.
His most poignant work, published in 1988, was his final collection, ''John: Poems," a memoir about the slow death of his longtime companion John MacDonald, who died in 1986 from complications of AIDS.
''He once told me, 'This wasn't the plan,' " Dick Lourie of Cambridge said Friday. ''You see, he was about 10 or 15 years older than John. He said, 'I thought I would get old and John would care for me.' "
''John was really the love of his life," said Lourie, ''and much like many widows and widowers, Ron remained single -- though not solitary -- for the rest of his life."
An only child, Mr. Schreiber was born in Chicago and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from Wesleyan University and served in the Army from 1955 to 1957. After his military service he moved to New York City, where he earned a doctorate in English at Columbia University.
He joined the faculty at UMass-Boston in 1967, shortly after the school was established in Park Square. ''He came out as a gay man before he came up for tenure," said Dittmar. ''He said, 'If they want me, they should want me as I am.' "
Mr. Schreiber, who retired a few years ago, did get tenure. He taught a survey course on the homosexual in Western literature, beginning in 1973. It was among the first courses of its kind.
''He was a very political, outspoken gay man, but he was never a separatist," said Lourie, who co-edited the literary journal Hanging Loose with Mr. Schreiber. ''He had as many straight friends as gay friends."
Mr. Schreiber belonged to a local men's consciousness-raising group for more than 20 years. ''He was the only admittedly gay man in the group," Lourie said.
Mr. Schreiber was a member of the Gay Liberation Front, which founded Fag Rag magazine. In 1963, he cofounded the literary publishing house and magazine that became Hanging Loose. The group has published more than 80 issues and many collections of poetry.
When the magazine's four-member editorial board met over a kitchen table to read and criticize submissions, Mr. Schreiber would argue passionately for poems he thought should be included. He was also the bookkeeper for the journal. The basement of his Cambridge home is filled with stacks of journals and books that didn't sell.
''He was a rebel with integrity, who was always challenging assumptions," said Dittmar. ''He was the man who was always pointing out that the emperor wore no clothes."
She described him as ''a man who was generous with his money and generous with his heart."
When he was younger, she said, ''he had curly hair and a big smile, like the Greek god Pan. And, like Pan, he was always playful. That playfulness never left him."
A tall man who often had a mustache and whose hair sometimes flowed to his shoulders, Mr. Schreiber had a summer house on Cape Cod, where he was once cited for indecent exposure on a nude beach in Truro.
When he had his day in court, he argued that the National Park ranger who cited him was too far away to determine if he was really nude. Mr. Schreiber's attorney brandished what Lourie called a ''nude-colored" bathing suit and successfully argued that the ranger could not be sure Mr. Schreiber was not wearing it.
Mr. Schreiber was never at a loss for words and was no stranger to confronting death.
''We cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over our heads but we can refuse to let them build nests in our hair," he wrote in his poem, ''The Birds of Sorrow."
Mr. Schreiber leaves a stepson, Juan J. Rios of Cambridge.
A memorial service is being planned.
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Ron Schreiber
Dear Friends,
Ron Schreiber, co-founder and co-editor of Hanging Loose Press, poet, anthologist, and gay activist, died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last night. He was seventy years old. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
Ron's long history in small press began with the co-founding of Things, a letterpress journal that published from 1963 to 1966. When Things went broke, it was succeeded that same year by Hanging Loose, an inexpensive mimeograph production with unbound pages in a cover envelope. The magazine has published regularly ever since. When the press turned to book publication, in 1972, its first title was Ron's first collection, Living Space. Other titles followed from such presses as Calamus Books and Alice James Books (of which he was a co-founder, but active only in an advisory role afterward). His last book, John, was published by Hanging Loose. Ron edited the influential 31 New American Poets and co-edited many anthologies from HL.
A native of Ohio, Ron was a graduate of Wesleyan University and earned his doctorate at Columbia. He was an original faculty member of the University of Massachusetts Boston when it opened in the late Sixties, rising to full professor and serving a term as chair of the English Department before his retirement a few years ago. He was proud to have been a very early advocate for and practitioner of the teaching of gay literature.
Ron's taste, knowledge and frequently unpredictable enthusiasms were major contributions to Hanging Loose Press's long life He often shunned more public roles to concentrate on less glamorous, but absolutely crucial, administrative and editorial tasks. The press will continue as before and Ron's legacy will be evident.
He is survived by his stepson, Juan Rios.
Robert Hershon
Dick Lourie
Mark Pawlak
Ron Schreiber, co-founder and co-editor of Hanging Loose Press, poet, anthologist, and gay activist, died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last night. He was seventy years old. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
Ron's long history in small press began with the co-founding of Things, a letterpress journal that published from 1963 to 1966. When Things went broke, it was succeeded that same year by Hanging Loose, an inexpensive mimeograph production with unbound pages in a cover envelope. The magazine has published regularly ever since. When the press turned to book publication, in 1972, its first title was Ron's first collection, Living Space. Other titles followed from such presses as Calamus Books and Alice James Books (of which he was a co-founder, but active only in an advisory role afterward). His last book, John, was published by Hanging Loose. Ron edited the influential 31 New American Poets and co-edited many anthologies from HL.
A native of Ohio, Ron was a graduate of Wesleyan University and earned his doctorate at Columbia. He was an original faculty member of the University of Massachusetts Boston when it opened in the late Sixties, rising to full professor and serving a term as chair of the English Department before his retirement a few years ago. He was proud to have been a very early advocate for and practitioner of the teaching of gay literature.
Ron's taste, knowledge and frequently unpredictable enthusiasms were major contributions to Hanging Loose Press's long life He often shunned more public roles to concentrate on less glamorous, but absolutely crucial, administrative and editorial tasks. The press will continue as before and Ron's legacy will be evident.
He is survived by his stepson, Juan Rios.
Robert Hershon
Dick Lourie
Mark Pawlak
Hanging Loose News for Fall 2004
Mark Pawlak will be reading at the following venues from PRESENT/TENSE, the 2004 anthology of contemporary political poetry he edited:
Newtonville Books, Sept. 14 at 7:00PM, 296 Walnut Street, Newtonville, Mass. (with anthology contributor Dick Lourie)
Food for Thought Books, October 3rd at 2:00PM, 106 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, Mass. (with anthology contributors Martin Espada & Dick Lourie).
*
A selection of poem translations from the 2004 HL book DEVOURED BY THE MOON, selected poems of the Spanish poet Rafael Perez Estrada are featured on Poetry Daily (www.poems.com) for August 17, 2004
*
A rave review of 2004 HL title THAT SPECIAL PLACE: NEW WORLD IRISH STORIES by Terence Winch appeared in August issue of the Irish Echo newspaper.
*
SHOOTING THE RAT, the anthology of outstanding poetry and prose by high school writers, edited by Mark Pawlak (HL 2003), was names a Top-40 young adult non-fiction books for 2003 by the Association of Pennsylvania School Librarians.
*
Hanging Loose 85 will appear in October 2004 with new work by Edward Field, Joanna Fuhrman, Robert Gregory, Cathy Park Hong, Morton Marcus, Terry Stokes, Ira Sukrungruang, Patricia Traxler, Robert Terashima, Paul Violi, David Wagoner, and Sarah White, among others.
*
New HL books slated for publication in 2005 include:
A first book (poems) ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT RESCUE by M.L. Smoker, an Assiniboine/Sioux writer from the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.
A first book (poems) PRIME TIME APPARITIONS by R. Zamora Linmark, a Filipino poet and novelist.
A first book (poems) BLUE COLLAR HOLIDAY by New York poet Jeni Olin, with original drawings and paintings by Larry Rivers.
Kentucky poet Robert Gregory's 4th poetry collection, THE BEAUTIFUL CITY OF WEEDS
New York writer Sharon Mesmer's second collection of stories entitled IN ORDINARY TIME
Newtonville Books, Sept. 14 at 7:00PM, 296 Walnut Street, Newtonville, Mass. (with anthology contributor Dick Lourie)
Food for Thought Books, October 3rd at 2:00PM, 106 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, Mass. (with anthology contributors Martin Espada & Dick Lourie).
*
A selection of poem translations from the 2004 HL book DEVOURED BY THE MOON, selected poems of the Spanish poet Rafael Perez Estrada are featured on Poetry Daily (www.poems.com) for August 17, 2004
*
A rave review of 2004 HL title THAT SPECIAL PLACE: NEW WORLD IRISH STORIES by Terence Winch appeared in August issue of the Irish Echo newspaper.
*
SHOOTING THE RAT, the anthology of outstanding poetry and prose by high school writers, edited by Mark Pawlak (HL 2003), was names a Top-40 young adult non-fiction books for 2003 by the Association of Pennsylvania School Librarians.
*
Hanging Loose 85 will appear in October 2004 with new work by Edward Field, Joanna Fuhrman, Robert Gregory, Cathy Park Hong, Morton Marcus, Terry Stokes, Ira Sukrungruang, Patricia Traxler, Robert Terashima, Paul Violi, David Wagoner, and Sarah White, among others.
*
New HL books slated for publication in 2005 include:
A first book (poems) ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT RESCUE by M.L. Smoker, an Assiniboine/Sioux writer from the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.
A first book (poems) PRIME TIME APPARITIONS by R. Zamora Linmark, a Filipino poet and novelist.
A first book (poems) BLUE COLLAR HOLIDAY by New York poet Jeni Olin, with original drawings and paintings by Larry Rivers.
Kentucky poet Robert Gregory's 4th poetry collection, THE BEAUTIFUL CITY OF WEEDS
New York writer Sharon Mesmer's second collection of stories entitled IN ORDINARY TIME
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