WATERTOWN – A new collection of previously unpublished poems by Helene Pilibosian (1933-2015), titled Legacy of an Author: Events and Wanderings Sprinkled in Six Books, was published in 2019 by Ohan Press in Watertown. Pilibosian’s husband, Hagop Sarkissian, did the research and coordination of the publication of this handsomely-bound hardcover volume.
Sarkissian, examining his late wife’s computer, expected to find three books of poetry ready for publication but was surprised that there were actually six volumes, all written between the years of 2007 and 2013. He decided to combine them into the present volume, and has provided some explanatory notes at its start. Among other things, he has been able to discern some hidden references because of his knowledge of the author’s life and personality.
Born Hasmig Vartouhi Pilibosian, the author adopted the professional name Helene Rose Pilibosian, and graduated from Harvard University in 1960. She married Sarkissian the same year and began a life of travel, writing, publishing and editing. She was employed by Harvard University’s Widener Library, served as the first female editor of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, and worked as a proofreader for the Harvard University Printing Office.
Her poems were published in many literary journals, such as the North American Review and Weber: The Contemporary West, and won prizes from Writer’s Digest and other magazines. They also reached finalist status in many literary competitions. Pilibosian founded Ohan Press in their home and published her own books, along with those by other family members, which ended up totaling 15.
A number of the poems in this volume have been published separately in various literary journals in the past. Pilibosian’s papers are now accessible as an archive at the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University. The finding aid is identified as MC972 at Harvard Library’s HOLLIS for Archival Discovery website.
