Gustaf Sobin, 69; Poet Known Best for Novel on Hunting Truffles

Gustaf Sobin, 69, an American-born poet known for his unusual 2000 novel “The Fly Truffler,” describing the art of truffle hunting in France, died July 7 in Cavaillon, France, of pancreatic cancer.

Sobin published more than a dozen books of poetry, four novels, two books of essays and a children’s story.

But he earned the greatest attention with “The Fly Truffler,” the metaphysical story of a professor who hunts truffles after discovering that eating them before bed induces dreams of his deceased wife.

The book was filled with references to the landscape, customs and culture of truffle-growing Provence in southern France, where Sobin lived for more than 40 years.

Born in Boston, Sobin graduated from Brown University in 1957. He visited Ernest Hemingway in Cuba and subsequently referred to the famous writer as “the gateway out,” or his incentive to move to Paris in 1962. After meeting Rene Char, he took the French poet’s advice to move to Provence.

Sobin bought an abandoned silk cocoon farm in the village of Goult for $800 and lived on a modest trust fund until he began writing and publishing his work.