Edgar Yipsel Harburg
| Yip Harburg | |
|---|---|
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Yip Harburg 1947
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Isidore Hochberg |
| Also known as | E.Y. Harburg, Yipsel Harburg |
| Born |
April 8, 1896 Manhattan, New York |
| Origin | New York, New York, U.S.A. |
| Died | March 5, 1981 (aged 84) Hollywood, California |
| Occupation(s) | Lyricist |
| Associated acts | Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern, Jule Styne, Burton Lane |
Edgar Yipsel "Yip" Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg, Yiddish: איסידור הוכברג; April 8, 1896 – March 5, 1981) was an American popular song lyricist who worked with many well-known composers. He wrote the lyrics to the standards "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (with Jay Gorney), "April in Paris," and "It's Only a Paper Moon," as well as all of the songs in The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow." He was known for the social commentary of his lyrics, as well as his liberal sensibilities. He championed racial and gender equality and union politics. He also was an ardent critic of religion.
Harburg, the youngest of four surviving children (out of ten), was born Isidore Hochberg on the Lower East Side of New York City on April 8, 1896. His parents, Lewis Hochberg and Mary Ricing, were Yiddish-speakingOrthodox Jews who had emigrated from Russia.
Isidore later adopted the name Edgar Harburg, and came to be best known as Edgar "Yip" Harburg. He attended Townsend Harris High School, where he and Ira Gershwin, who met over a shared fondness for Gilbert and Sullivan, worked on the school paper and became lifelong friends. According to his son Ernie Harburg, Gilbert and Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw taught his father, a "democratic socialist, [and] sworn challenger of all tyranny against the people, that 'humor is an act of courage' and dissent".
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