Gustaf Sobin

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Gustaf Sobin (November 15, 1935 – July 7, 2005) was an American poet and writer who spent most of his life in France. Born in Boston, he went to the Choate School and Brown University, then moved to Paris in 1962. He lived in the Provençal village of Goult for more than forty years, publishing more than a dozen poetry books, four novels, a children’s story, and two essay collections. He died in July 2005 from pancreatic cancer at age 69.

Sobin studied with René Char and developed a style that relies on the sounds of language, using assonance, consonance, and other sonic techniques. He also translated works, including Henri Michaux’s Ideograms in China. In 2009, two of Char’s mid-to-late 1960s works, The Brittle Age and Returning Upland, were published in full with Char’s French text.

His notable books include Breath’s Burials (poetry, 1995), Luminous Debris (essays, 1999), Ladder of Shadows (essays, 2008), and Collected Poetry (2010). His fiction includes The Fly Truffler and In Pursuit of a Vanishing Star, about Greta Garbo’s early career. Sobin was survived by his wife Susannah Bott, daughter Esther, son Gabriel, and his brother Harris, an architect in Phoenix, Arizona, who helped restore Sobin’s Provence home. He also left his literary estate to Andrew Joron and Andrew Zawacki as co-executors. Michael Ignatieff wrote a foreword for Ladder of Shadows.