Full Details
Gregory A. Douglas
| Full Name: | Eli Cantor |
| Born: | September 9, 1913 The Bronx, new York City, New York, USA |
| Died: | October 17, 2006 Sarasota, Florida, USA |
| Occupation: | Business Man, Writer, Composer |
| Nationality: | American |
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Biography
Eli Cantor was a successful businessman, novelist, playwright, composer and poet. He also sought to improve society through his volunteer work that often focused on the arts in New York and later in Sarasota, where he and his wife lived in retirement since 1981.
Cantor's plays have appeared off Broadway, on television on NBC's "Armstrong Circle Theatre" in the 1950s, and in Florida Studio Theatre workshops.
Having taken violin lessons as a child and performed in a band in the Catskills as a teenager, Cantor also pursued musical interests throughout his life.
A composition he wrote for a string quartet was choreographed by the Sarasota Ballet of Florida and performed at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in 1992.
Born in Bronx, N.Y., on Sept. 9, 1913, Cantor studied philosophy at New York University and received a law degree from Harvard.
While working in the legal department of CBS Television after college, he also pursued his interest in writing. He found encouragement in his early writing pursuits when he received the O'Brien Short Story Award in 1940, the same year William Faulkner and Katherine Anne Porter also received the prestigious national award.
Over the years, Cantor wrote several novels and short stories, plays, poems and musical compositions. His magazine articles appeared in Esquire, the Atlantic Monthly, the Saturday Review and other publications. At one point, he also worked as the fiction editor at Esquire.
He combined his interest in journalism and law as editor-in-chief of the New York-based Research Institute of America, which informed businesses of changes nationally and globally that could affect their enterprises.
Cantor also took over his father's printing business, The Composing Room, and became a leader in the industry as a consultant and lecturer on graphic design and typography. He served as chairman of the board of the Printing Industries of America and was inducted in the New York Printers Wall of Fame.
Cantor was a pioneer in the conversion from the hot type used in the printing process to cold type, or photocomposition, in the United States in the early 1960s, his daughter said.
In addition to other pursuits, Eli Cantor valued community volunteerism. He served as an adviser to the National Endowment for the Arts and served on the board of Chamber Music America.
While living in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., he answered rescue calls with the volunteer fire department.
In Sarasota, he was an adviser to the Sarasota County Arts Council, lectured on literature at the Sarasota Institute for Lifetime Learning, and served on the board of the Asolo Theatre, the Art Centre of Sarasota and the advisory board of the Sarasota Music Festival. He also was a supporter of the symphony, the ballet and New College of Florida.
Works in the WWEnd Database
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