Lasting Memories

Gilbert Sorrentino
April 27, 1929-May 18, 2006
Palo Alto, California

Novelist Gilbert Sorrentino, who headed the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University's Department of English for 17 years, died of cancer May 18, 2006, in his Brooklyn, N.Y., home. He was 77.

Sorrentino was a former Palo Alto resident and taught at Stanford from 1982 to 1999. He was the author of more than 20 books of fiction and poetry, including "Mulligan Stew" and "Aberration of Starlight." The New York Times once noted that he "has long been one of our most intelligent and daring writers."

Sorrentino was born in Brooklyn on April 27, 1929, and attended Brooklyn College until he served two years in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. He returned to Brooklyn College but never finished his degree.

He founded a literary magazine, Neon, in 1956, with college friends and then worked as an editor for Grove Press while writing his novels. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1982, Sorrentino taught at the New School for Social Research, Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University.

He received numerous awards for his writing, including the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature (1981), an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature (1985), a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction (1992) and a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award (2005). He was also named a PEN/Faulkner finalist twice, for "Aberration of Starlight" (1980) and "Little Casino" (2002).

He was working on a new novel at the time of his death.

Sorrentino is survived by his wife of 45 years, Victoria; their son, Christopher, who is also a novelist; by a son from his first marriage, Jesse; and three grandchildren.

Arrangements for a memorial service in New York City are pending. Gift's in Sorrentino's memory may be made to the PEN Writers Fund at PEN American Center, 588 Broadway, Suite 503, New York, NY 10012.