Ben Sonnenberg

Benjamin 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, the son of publicist Benjamin Sonnenberg, whose clients included such notables as Samuel Goldwyn, William S. Paley 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, where his father and his household staff of six entertained celebrities at regularly held dinner parties. 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.

Sonnenberg started communicating in epigrams at age seven and started writing his memoirs at age 13, inspired by Giacomo Casanova's Histoire de ma vie. He ran through a series of unsuccessful experiences at various private schools and never finished high school.

With his father's wealth, he was able to travel around Europe in his 20s, living at times in London and Málaga. The play lasted four nights Off-Off-Broadway. 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 and The Dial and named after the street where his father grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side. 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.