Herschel Silverman
Herschel Silverman is a New York-born poet living in Bayonne, New Jersey. Silverman was raised in California until he was orphaned at age seven, when he was sent to Jersey City to live with his aunt, Norma Jacobson, and his grandmother. He ran a candy store, called Hersch's Beehive to provide for his family, while writing hundreds of (published) Beat poems. He also painted and printed poetry chapbooks and pamphlets on the side. The most important influence on his writing would have been Allen Ginsberg, but he was also connected to the Deep image school of poetry and close to Theodore Enslin.
Silverman served in World War II as a cook and in the Korean War in 1952. The store closed in 1984. Silverman has received the New Jersey Council of Arts Fellowship in Poetry.
Silverman married Laura Rothschild in 1945. They had two children, Elaine Esther, born in 1949, and Jack, born in 1958. Silverman has three grandchildren, two girls and one boy. Jonathan David and Arielle Beth Teitcher, born in 1983 and 1985 respectively, were born to Silverman's daughter Elaine. Laura Fran, was born in 1988, to Silverman's son Jack. Silverman's wife Laura passed away in early 1988.
Silverman has continued to read and write new poetry well into his eighties. He is well known in the New York City Beat scene and is a regular at the Bowery Poetry club and other various Beat venues.
Works
- Krishna Poems. 1970. Repr.: Shivastan Press, 2006
- April 1975 Vietnam Newsreel After "The Times". Repr.: Saul's Press, New York 1999
- The Hey-Baby Blues. Beehive Press, Bayonne, NJ 1993
- Nine De Koonings For Marian Courtney. Beehive Press, Bayonne NJ
- Nite Train: Poems of Nostalgia and Frustration. Beehive Press, Bayonne, NJ
- Bookshelf Cowboy. Beehive Press, Bayonne, NJ 2001
- Lift Off: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2001 Water Row Press, Sudbury, Massachusetts 2002
- A Tokyo Stroll. Yuko Otomo Sisyphus Press, 2002