Gil Orlovitz
Gil Orlovitz was an American writer born on June 7, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His upbringing featured contrasting influences from his parents; his father cautioned against relying too heavily on art, while his mother supported him with affection and cultural staples. Orlovitz developed a passion for prose during high school, eventually pursuing higher education at Columbia University after military service in World War II. His career spanned various roles, including radio, import/export, and research, while also creating Off-Broadway plays and working in Hollywood as a screenwriter.
Despite his initial confidence, Orlovitz's two novels, published in the late 1960s, received disappointing reviews, which may have contributed to personal struggles, including a drinking problem. His poetry largely went unnoticed, yet he maintained a prolific writing output. Orlovitz returned to New York in the late 1950s to focus on editing, continuing to write until his death on July 10, 1973. His literary journey reflects a complex relationship with art, marked by both ambition and the challenges of critical reception.
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Subject Terms
Gil Orlovitz
Writer
- Born: June 7, 1918
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: July 10, 1973
- Place of death: New York
Biography
Gil Orlovitz was born on June 7, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a father who would warn him of the dangers of “relying too heavily on art as a basis for life” and a mother who, instead of attempting to advise him, merely heaped upon him “babble, lox, and love.” Orlovitz would take little of the advice but much of the rest with him into a writing life that has contributed heavily to the scholars’ study of poetry in general and semiotics in particular, and that he often boasted produced an “extent and depth. . . so fabulous and of such variety and texture and sheer wonder that my work will be adjudged second to none at any time in the history of art.”
Orlovitz was first exposured to prose by one of his English teachers. Against his father’s admonishments, this became the milieu in which he would become enmeshed, sacrificing all other school subjects. After high school and a short stint at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and after serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he enrolled at Columbia University. There he studied dramaturgy with Hatcher Hughes and took courses in philosophy and comparative religion, making easy transition to the Dramatic Workshop in New York, where he studied under Erwin Piscator.
Orlovitz married during this time, wedding a woman named Betty, with whom he had no children; then in 1952, he remarried. His second wife was named Maralyn Marquize, and the couple had three children, one daughter and two sons. Also during this period of growth, he worked a various jobs—in radio as a monitor, in the import/export trade, and in research for Standard Oil of New Jersey. During the early 1950’s, three of his plays saw Off-Broadway production; then Orlovitz made his way to Hollywood to work first as a staff screenwriter for Columbia Pictures and then as a freelance writer for television.
In 1967, Orlovitz published his first novel, followed by his second (and last) in 1970. Both received “disillusioning” reviews (one called it a “no- novel” written by a “no- novelist”)—responses which were so unexpected to the extremely confident writer that it is speculated the dismay may have contributed to his developing a drinking problem. His poetry, as well, was for the most part ignored.
When his father fell ill in the later part of 1958, he returned to New York, where he began a career in editing that would last until he died on July 10, 1973, still a serious, prolific writer with few literary friends, anomalous writing that defied the categorical, and a select but aging and therefore “unfathomable” audience.