Benjamin "Ben" Sonnenberg, Jr. (December 30, 1936 – June 24, 2010) was an American publisher and the founder of the literary magazine '' Grand Street'', which he began as a quarterly journal in 1981. Sonnenberg was born on December 30, 1936, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, the son of publicist

Benjamin Sonnenberg Benjamin Sonnenberg (July 12, 1901 – September 6, 1978) was a Russian Empire-born American public relations consultant who represented celebrities and major corporations. He was best known for the lavish entertaining he hosted for clients and ...

, whose clients included such notables as

Samuel Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor a ...

William S. Paley William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS) from a small radio network into ...

and David O. Selznick, in addition to major corporations. In his 1991 autobiography, ''Lost Property: Memoirs and Confessions of a Bad Boy'', Sonnenberg recounted his childhood growing up in a five-story townhouse on

Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States. T ...

, where his father and his household staff of six entertained celebrities at regularly held dinner parties.Grimes, William
"Ben Sonnenberg, Founder of Literary Journal, Dies at 73"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', June 25, 2010. Accessed June 29, 2010. In 2020, the ''New York Review of Books'' re-issued Sonnenberg's memoir, ''Lost Property'', within its "New York Review Classics" series, and included an introduction by

Maria Margaronis Maria Margaronis (born 1958 in Marylebone, London) is a British journalist of Greek descent. Margaronis has written from ''The Nation''’s London bureau, the other half of which was her husband D. D. Guttenplan, now ''The Nation''s editor. A for ...

. Sonnenberg started communicating in

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

s at age seven and started writing his memoirs at age 13, inspired by

Giacomo Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...

's ''

Histoire de ma vie ''Histoire de ma vie'' (''History of My Life'') is both the memoir and autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, a famous 18th-century Italian adventurer. A previous, bowdlerized version was originally known in English as ''The Memoirs of Jacques Ca ...

''. He ran through a series of unsuccessful experiences at various private schools and never finished high school. He never attended college, educating himself by reading and developing close relationships with writers

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

and

W. S. Merwin William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thema ...

.Ben Sonnenberg Papers, 1956-2001.

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Accessed June 29, 2010. With his father's wealth, he was able to travel around Europe in his 20s, living at times in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

. ''Jane Street'', the first of three plays he wrote, was about two women living in a

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

apartment.Sonnenberg, Ben
"Lost Property: Memoirs and Confessions of a Bad Boy"
p. 143.

Counterpoint Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent ...

, 1999. . The play lasted four nights

Off-Off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the prof ...

. He sold his father's 37-room townhouse in 1979 for $1.5 million, a building which ''

'' described as "often called the finest private house in New York City". He used the proceeds from the sale to support the creation of '' Grand Street'', which was established as a journal in 1981 with a spirit similar to ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

'' and ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'' and named after the street where his father grew up on Manhattan's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. The inaugural issue of ''Grand Street'', which he edited from the dining room of his Riverside Drive apartment, featured works from his friends Hughes and Merwin, as well as pieces by

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symmet ...

John Hollander John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter C ...

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

and

James Salter James Arnold Horowitz (June 10, 1925 – June 19, 2015), better known as James Salter, his pen name and later-adopted legal name, was an American novelist and short-story writer. Originally a career officer and pilot in the United States Air For ...

, along with excerpts of

Glenway Wescott Glenway Wescott (April 11, 1901 – February 22, 1987) was an American poet, novelist and essayist. A figure of the American expatriate literary community in Paris during the 1920s, Wescott was openly gay.Eric Haralson, ''Henry James and Queer Mo ...

's journals. Sonnenberg published material based solely on his preferences, saying in a 1989 interview with ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'' that "I thought a magazine would be a good way to give money to individuals whose writing I liked". Circulation of the magazine was never more than 5,000 copies. He edited the magazine until 1990, when health problems forced him to sell the publication. The magazine ended publication in 2004. A review of the Winter 1985 issue in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' called ''Grand Street'' "Hellenic, leftish, mandarin, impeccable", of which Sonnenberg would later say that he found that the accolade "hardest to accept is 'impeccable'". In his obituary, ''

'' described ''Grand Street'' as "one of the most revered literary magazines of the postwar era". Sonnenberg reminisced that "I printed only what I liked; never once did I publish an editorial statement; I offered no writers' guidelines; and I stopped when I couldn't turn the pages anymore". Around 1970, Sonnenberg developed symptoms of

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. He started walking with a cane, later needed a wheelchair and was ultimately paralyzed from the neck down. Despite being a

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

, he continued communicating with his colleagues and writing by dictation. Once he was no longer able to continue publishing the magazine and as his inheritance was depleted, he sold ''Grand Street'', though he continued to hold frequent literary gatherings at his apartment after the sale. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

in 1994 Sonnenberg died at age 73 in Manhattan on June 24, 2010, due to complications of multiple sclerosis. He was survived by his third wife, Dorothy Gallagher, as well as by three daughters and five grandchildren. He also had a stepson and three stepgrandchildren.

References

External links

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Letters to Ben Sonnenberg, 1961-2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnenberg, Ben 1936 births 2010 deaths American publishers (people) Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Deaths from multiple sclerosis People from Gramercy Park Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent