Gilbert Sorrentino was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on April 27, 1929. He attended Brooklyn College prior to being drafted into the U.S. Army, in which he served as a medic, returning to school on the G.I. Bill after his discharge. In 1953, he married Elsene Wiessner, with whom he had two children, Jesse (b. 1954) and Delia (1957-2003). In 1956, he started the literary magazine Neon and soon was in touch with many of the leading and emergent figures of the era, including William Carlos Williams, who included in the fifth volume of Paterson an excerpt from a prose sketch Sorrentino had sent to him during his army service.
Sorrentino’s first volume of poems, The Darkness Surrounds Us, was published in 1960 by Jonathan Williams’ Highlands Press. His second, Black and White, was published by LeRoi Jones’ Totem Press in 1964. By 1965, Sorrentino was working as an editor at Grove Press while living on the Lower East Side with Victoria Ortiz, whom he would marry in 1968, and their son Christopher (b. 1963). His first novel, The Sky Changes, was published by Hill & Wang in 1966, and W.W. Norton published his third poetry collection, The Perfect Fiction, in 1968.
After leaving Grove Press in 1970, Sorrentino moved with his family to the Westbeth Artist’s Housing complex in Greenwich Village, where he would live for twelve years, publishing numerous novels and volumes of poetry including Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (1971), Splendide Hotel (1973), White Sail (1977), The Orangery (1978), Mulligan Stew (1979), and Aberration of Starlight (1980). In 1982 he was appointed a professor of English at Stanford University, where he taught until his retirement in 1999.
In retirement, Sorrentino returned to Bay Ridge, where he would live for the rest of his life. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 and died on May 18, 2006. His final novel, The Abyss of Human Illusion, was published posthumously in 2010.
Sorrentino’s many honors and awards include two Guggenheim Fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, the Mildred and Harold Strauss Livings award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (declined), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. He also was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1981 and 2003, for Aberration of Starlight and Little Casino. In 2020, Community Board 10 and the New York City Parks Department named a section of Leif Erickson Park, in Bay Ridge, after Sorrentino.
Sorrentino’s first volume of poems, The Darkness Surrounds Us, was published in 1960 by Jonathan Williams’ Highlands Press. His second, Black and White, was published by LeRoi Jones’ Totem Press in 1964. By 1965, Sorrentino was working as an editor at Grove Press while living on the Lower East Side with Victoria Ortiz, whom he would marry in 1968, and their son Christopher (b. 1963). His first novel, The Sky Changes, was published by Hill & Wang in 1966, and W.W. Norton published his third poetry collection, The Perfect Fiction, in 1968.
After leaving Grove Press in 1970, Sorrentino moved with his family to the Westbeth Artist’s Housing complex in Greenwich Village, where he would live for twelve years, publishing numerous novels and volumes of poetry including Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (1971), Splendide Hotel (1973), White Sail (1977), The Orangery (1978), Mulligan Stew (1979), and Aberration of Starlight (1980). In 1982 he was appointed a professor of English at Stanford University, where he taught until his retirement in 1999.
In retirement, Sorrentino returned to Bay Ridge, where he would live for the rest of his life. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 and died on May 18, 2006. His final novel, The Abyss of Human Illusion, was published posthumously in 2010.
Sorrentino’s many honors and awards include two Guggenheim Fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, the Mildred and Harold Strauss Livings award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (declined), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. He also was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1981 and 2003, for Aberration of Starlight and Little Casino. In 2020, Community Board 10 and the New York City Parks Department named a section of Leif Erickson Park, in Bay Ridge, after Sorrentino.