June 30, 2005: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Obituaries: The State: Hilary Tham Goldberg, a poet, painter and teacher who viewed the world from the perspective of a Chinese-Malaysian converted Jewish wife and mother in suburban America, died June 24 of metastatic lung cancer
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June 30, 2005: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Obituaries: The State: Hilary Tham Goldberg, a poet, painter and teacher who viewed the world from the perspective of a Chinese-Malaysian converted Jewish wife and mother in suburban America, died June 24 of metastatic lung cancer
Hilary Tham Goldberg, a poet, painter and teacher who viewed the world from the perspective of a Chinese-Malaysian converted Jewish wife and mother in suburban America, died June 24 of metastatic lung cancer
She immigrated to the United States in 1971 after her marriage to a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia
Hilary Tham Goldberg, a poet, painter and teacher who viewed the world from the perspective of a Chinese-Malaysian converted Jewish wife and mother in suburban America, died June 24 of metastatic lung cancer
HILARY GOLDBERG
Poet created alter ego Mrs. Wei
WASHINGTON — Hilary Tham Goldberg, a poet, painter and teacher who viewed the world from the perspective of a Chinese-Malaysian converted Jewish wife and mother in suburban America, died June 24 of metastatic lung cancer at her home in suburban Arlington, Va. She was 58.
Goldberg was born in Klang, Malaysia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and was educated at a convent school taught by Irish nuns. Her grandmother grumbled that she wasted too much time with her nose in a book, but a high school English teacher urged her to continue reading and to write poetry.
“When we write poems,’’ she would observe many years later, “we pursue immortality by way of truth.’’ She published her first book of poems in 1969.
She received a master’s degree in English literature in 1969 from the University of Malaya and immigrated to the United States in 1971 after her marriage to a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia. She lived in New Jersey before moving to Arlington in 1973.
She was the author of nine books of poetry and a book of memoirs and poems, “Lane With No Name: Memoirs and Poems of a Malaysian-Chinese Girlhood’’ (1997). She also was editor in chief of Word Works Inc. and poetry editor for “Potomac Review.’’
A book of poetry titled “Bad Names for Women’’ (1989) won second prize in the 1988 Virginia Poetry Prizes. Two of her books are used as Asian studies texts by the University of Pittsburgh, and her most recent, “Tin Mines and Concubines,’’ a collection of short stories set in Malaysia, won the Washington Writers Publishing House Prize for fiction and will be published in the fall.
Longtime readers of Goldberg’s poetry came to know Mrs. Wei, her muse and poetic alter ego. A traditional Chinese mother, the outspoken Mrs. Wei tossed out opinions on all manner of topics, whether roosters and chickens or the First Amendment, snake magic or soldiers, even Osama bin Laden (“A thief has entered the house.”). Many of Mrs. Wei’s piquant observations are collected in “The Tao of Mrs. Wei” (2003).
In addition to writing poetry, Goldberg did Chinese brush painting.
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Story Source: The State
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malaysia; Obituaries
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