{"id":54012,"date":"2026-07-09T09:58:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=54012"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:00:09","slug":"alfred-gong-papers-at-the-archives-and-rare-books-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2026\/07\/alfred-gong-papers-at-the-archives-and-rare-books-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfred Gong papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today the Archives and Rare Books Library\u00a0is\u00a0highlighting one of our German-Americana\u00a0Collections, the Alfred Gong papers. The finding aid can be viewed online at the Alfred Gong papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfred Gong (1920-1981)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gong, who was named Alfred\u00a0Liquornik\u00a0at birth, was born on August 14,\u00a01920,\u00a0in Chernivtsi, Romania (which is now part of\u00a0the Ukraine)\u00a0and\u00a0attended\u00a0the University of Chernivtsi. His education was cut short due to Soviet and then German occupation during World War II\u00a0in which he was forced into the Jewish ghetto\u00a0established\u00a0in Chernivtsi and later the ghetto in Mogilev-Podolsk. Gong spent 1941-1944 in forced labor camps before he was able to escape to Bucharest, Romania,\u00a0with forged papers. In 1946, he moved to Vienna, Austria, and finished his education at the University of Vienna. While in Vienna, Gong organized poetry\u00a0readings\u00a0and published poetry in newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"Inside
International Refugee Organization identification papers of Alfred Gong, 1950. From the Alfred Gong papers GA-90-01 at Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gong immigrated to New York in 1951 where he held employment in a factory and later as a librarian in the Bronx State Hospital. He published his poems in German American newspapers and journals, as well as\u00a0three collections of poems:\u00a0Gras and Omega<\/em>,\u00a0Manifest Alpha<\/em>, and\u00a0Gnadenfrist<\/em>. He also wrote a collection of short stories,\u00a0Happening in\u00a0der\u00a0Park Avenue<\/em>, and edited\u00a0Interview\u00a0mit\u00a0Amerika<\/em>, an anthology of\u00a0German-American\u00a0writings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was an editor for the German language newspaper\u00a0Aufbau<\/em>\u00a0and critic for the\u00a0American German Review<\/em>. He obtained his United States citizenship in 1956, changed his last name to Gong, and married Norma Righetto, a Swiss immigrant in 1957. He passed away on October 18, 1981.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details of the collection<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Alfred Gong papers detail the life and work of the German American poet, essayist, critic, and editor Alfred Gong from 1931-2007.\u00a0The majority\u00a0of\u00a0his papers consist of notes, drafts, correspondence, and research on his poems and short stories written in German.\u00a0Within the collection is correspondence between Gong and other notable German writers Max Brod, Bodo\u00a0Scheurig, Joseph P. Strelka, and Gerhard Fritsch.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scans
Untitled poems by Gong, undated. From the From the Alfred Gong papers GA-90-01 at Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gong’s works reflect his Jewish faith, experiences as a forced laborer during World War II, life in New York as an immigrant, German heritage, and his time living in Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his literary works, this collection\u00a0contains\u00a0family photographs; documents on\u00a0his wartime experience; publications by other German authors and institutions; and materials related to the research conducted on Gong by graduate student Joachim Herrmann in the 1980s.\u00a0To learn more about the\u00a0collection,\u00a0please visit the\u00a0online finding aid<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Handwritten
A page of notes of Gong’s “Gr\u00fcnhorns Blues”, undated. From the Alfred Gong papers GA-90-01 at Archives and Rare Books Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today the Archives and Rare Books Library\u00a0is\u00a0highlighting one of our German-Americana\u00a0Collections, the Alfred Gong papers. The finding aid can be viewed online at the Alfred Gong papers. Alfred Gong (1920-1981)\u00a0 Gong, who was named Alfred\u00a0Liquornik\u00a0at birth, was born on August … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,31,13],"tags":[2512,2358,389,2934,64,420,36],"class_list":["post-54012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uc","category-uclibraries","tag-arb","tag-archives-and-rare-books","tag-authors","tag-german-immigrants","tag-german-americana","tag-poetry","tag-uc-libraries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54019,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54012\/revisions\/54019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}