Joseph V. Hamburger Papers

Joseph Victor Hamburger was born 27 December 1942 in New York, New York, to Aaron Hamburger and Dorothy Nellie Friedland. He moved with his parents to Farmingdale, New Jersey, in 1944, and attended the local public schools, graduating from Freehold Regional High School in 1961. He briefly attended Temple University for one year before transferring to Monmouth College, West Long Branch, New Jersey, where he began writing songs and poetry. With his younger brother, Max, Joseph began performing folk music in local clubs.

At Monmouth, he met and married Susan Murphy. He dropped out of college for three years, then returned to complete his B.A. at night at University College, Rutgers--The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick campus, 1970-1974. While attending Rutgers, Hamburger published poems in the evening school's literary journal, Untitled, and wrote record and concert reviews for the Rutgers College student newspaper, Targum, and for a local underground newspaper, All You Can Eat. The couple, billing themselves as Joint Effort, and later as Ong's Hat, played folk, rock, and his original songs in New Jersey and New York City.

After graduation, he attended Kean College of New Jersey as a graduate student in Student Personnel Services, but did not earn his degree. The Hamburgers moved to Connecticut in 1976, and he began writing science fiction short stories in addition to writing poetry and songs. Hamburger was unsuccessful in publishing any of the short stories, but had continued success with his poetry, giving readings at poetry nights, and performing as a duo in local clubs.

In 1981, they moved to Tallahassee, Florida, and he wrote book, concert, and record reviews for the Florida State University student newspaper, Flambeau, and continued writing and performing his songs with his wife, and rewriting some of his short stories. To help support them, he began working as a drug and alcohol counselor. They moved to Richmond, Virginia, in 1988, and Hamburger returned to graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University where he earned a Master's degree in Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Education in 1994. While in Richmond, he began performing solo. He published articles about the intersection of psychology, science, religion, and politics, plus personal experience essays in Style Weekly newspaper, poetry in Caffeine magazine, and letter to the editor of the Richmond Daily Times newspaper.

In 1994 they moved to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, where he published opinion articles, book reviews, and letters to the editor in the Centre Daily Times newspaper. His short story, "Shoot Out at Dysfunction Junction," won third prize in the Central PA (WITF's monthly magazine) 2002 writing contest. Two entries, "Doo Wop architecture" and "Bruce Springsteen," were published in the Encyclopedia of New Jersey in 2004. Throughout their marriage, Susan has acted as copyeditor and proofreader for Joseph's works. He died of bladder cancer on 21 December 2007 at Penn State Hershey Medical Center.