Gilbert Sorrentino (1929-2006). Courtesy HiLoBrow.
Gilbert Sorrentino (April 27, 1929 - May 18, 2006) was an American poet, novelist, literary critic, and academic.
Life[]
Sorrentino was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1929.
In 1956, Sorrentino founded literary magazine Neon with friends from Brooklyn College, including childhood friend Hubert Selby Jr. He edited Neonfrom 1956 to 1960, then served as editor for Kulchur from 1961 to 1963.
After working closely with Selby on the manuscript of Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), Sorrentino was an editor at Grove Press from 1965 to 1970, where an editorial project of his was The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
He eventually took up positions at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, the University of Scranton, and the New School for Social Research in New York before being hired as a professor of English at Stanford University, where he served from 1982 to 1999.
His students included novelists Jeffrey Eugenides and Nicole Krauss. His son, Christopher Sorrentino, is the author of novels Sound on Sound and Trance.
He died in Brooklyn in 2006.
Writing[]
In over 25 works of fiction and poetry, Sorrentino explored the comic and formal possibilities of language and literature. His insistence on the primacy of language and his forays into metafiction mark him as a postmodernist, but he is also known for his ear for American speech and his attention to the particularities of place, especially of his native Brooklyn.
Sorrentino's first novel, The Sky Changes, was published in 1966. Notable among his many other novels are Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things, Blue Pastoral, and Mulligan Stew. The latter novel, a humorous postmodern romp, riffs on the metafictional possibilities introduced in Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds, and is one of Sorrentino's most popular works.
His 1999 novel, Gold Fools, is written entirely in interrogative sentences (as critic Steven Moore says), "not just to see if he could pull it off, but because he wanted to interrogate our cultural assumptions about the Old West." [1]
In 2010 a posthumous novel, The Abyss of Human Illusion, was published by Coffee House Press with a preface by Christopher Sorrentino.
Recognition[]
Sorrentino was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Guggenheim Fellowships in Fiction in 1973 and 1987, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature (1981), PEN/Faulkner Award finalist in 1981 and 2003, the Mildred and Harold Strauss Livings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (declined, 1982), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature (1985), the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction (1992), and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- The Darkness Surrounds Us. Highlands, NC: J. Williams, 1960.
- Black and White. New York: Totem Press / Corinth Books, 1964.
- The Perfect Fiction. New York: Norton, 1968.
- Corrosive Sublimate. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow, [1971?]
- A Dozen Oranges. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1976.
- White Sail. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1977.
- The Orangery. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1978.
- Selected Poems, 1958-1980. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1981.
- New and Selected Poems, 1958-1998. Copenhagen & Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2004.
Play[]
- Flawless Play Restored: The masque of Fungo (novel fragment presented in play form). Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow, 1974.
Novels[]
- The Sky Changes. New York: Hill & Wang, 1966.
- revised & enlarged, San Franciso, CA: North Point Press, 1986; Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1998.
- Steelwork. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970.
- Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things. New York: Pantheon, 1971.
- Splendide-Hôtel New York: New Directions, 1973
- (with afterword by Robert Creeley). Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1984.
- Mulligan Stew: A novel. New York: Grove Press, 1979.
- Aberration of Starlight. New York: Random House, 1980.
- Crystal Vision: A novel. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1981.
- Blue Pastoral. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1983.
- Odd Number. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985.
- Rose Theatre. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1987.
- Misterioso. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1989.
- Under the Shadow. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1991.
- Red the Fiend. New York: Gromm International, 1995.
- Pack of Lies: A trilogy (contains Odd Number, Rose Theatre, & Misterioso). Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1997.
- Gold Fools. Copenhagen & Los Angeles: Green Integer Books, 2001.
- Little Casino. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.
- Lunar Follies. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2005.
- A Strange Commonplace. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2006.
- The Abyss of Human Illusion. 2010.
Short fiction[]
- A Beehive Arranged on Humane Principles (novella; with linocuts by David Storey). New York: Grenfell Press, 1986.
- The Moon in its Flight: Stories. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2004.
Non-fiction[]
- Something Said: Essays. San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1984
- expanded edition, Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2001.
Translated[]
- Sulpicia, Sulpiciae Elegidia = Elegiacs of Sulpicia: Gilbert Sorrentino versions. Mount Horeb, WI: Perishable Press, 1977.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[2]
Audio / video[]
Gilbert Sorrentino, "The Magnificent Music Machine" (VED Octopus Ride)
- Gilbert Sorrentino reads excerpts from 'Crystal Vision' and talks about literature as abstract art . New York: A Moveable Feast, 1982.
- Gilbert Sorrentino (VHS). Los Angeles: Lannan Foundation, 1993.
Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.[2]
See also[]
References[]
Fonds[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Interview with critic and author Steven Moore, Poeter Square Books, June 9, 2010. Blogger, Web, Dec. 7, 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Search results = au:Gilbert Sorrentino, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 27, 2015.
External links[]
- Poems
- "A Poem to Read in August"
- Gilbert Sorrentino 1929-2006 at the Poetry Foundation
- 3 Poems by Gilbert Sorrentino
- Gilbert Sorrentino profile & 10 poems at the PIP (Project for Innovative Poetry) Blog
- Selection of poems by Gilbert Sorrentino at Green Integer (.PDF)
- Audio / video
- Books
- Gilbert Sorrentino at Amazon.com
- Works by or about Gilbert Sorrentino in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- About
- Gilbert Sorrentino in the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Gilbert Sorrentino obituary at The Guardian
- Jacket Interview A long 1974 interview, republished in 2006.
- A 1994 interview
- [http://www.bookforum.com/archive/feb_06/howard.html A biographical and critical essay by Gerald Howard, in BookForum
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