Isaac Goldberg

Who was Isaac Goldberg?

Isaac Goldberg was an American journalist, author, critic, translator, editor, publisher, and lecturer. Born in Boston he studied at Harvard University and received a BA degree in 1910, a MA degree in 1911 and a PhD in 1912. He traveled to Europe as a journalist during World War I writing for the Boston Evening Transcript.

He wrote biographies of H. L. Mencken, Havelock Ellis, W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, and George Gershwin, books on theatrical and musical appreciation, and contributed articles for many magazines. He also founded, published, and edited a monthly news magazine called Panorama.

He was fluent in Yiddish, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese and translated a variety of literary works into English. He received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1932 to write a history of Spanish and Portuguese literature in America. He was also a lecturer on Hispanic literature at Harvard University from 1931 to 1932.