Mar 10, 2020 - Sale 2533

Sale 2533 - Lot 243

Price Realized: $ 488
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(TRAVEL.) Sonnenberg, Benjamin, Jr. Love letters of a wealthy young expatriate in Spain. Approximately 120 letters (0.4 linear feet), most of them Autograph Letters Signed, to Yolanda Sonnabend of London, England; condition generally strong. Málaga, Spain, 1962-74

Additional Details

Benjamin Sonnenberg Jr. (1936-2010) was the son of a famous publicist, raised in a Gramercy Park townhouse which was described as one of the most impressive private homes in Manhattan. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s in self-imposed exile in Europe. In 1981 he founded the influential literary quarterly Grand Street using the proceeds from his father's estate, and in 1991 published a well-received autobiography, "Lost Property: Memoirs and Confessions of a Bad Boy."
This lot consists mainly of love letters written by Sonnenberg Jr. to artist Yolanda Sonnabend (1935-2015). The large majority were written from April to October 1962, when Sonnenberg was living in the Spanish Mediterranean resort town of Benajarafe near Málaga. He was an extremely prolific correspondent, sometimes writing her as many as three letters in a single day, most of them spanning several pages. One letter describes a dinner party with the race car driver and wine mogul Philippe, Baron de Rothschild (26 April 1962). His 16 April 1962 letter includes his typescript short story, "Modern Romance," and a 24 May 1962 poem titled "A Song for Yolanda Only!" is also included, as well as a photocopy of an untitled story, "Our Politics." A lengthy summary of the collection is available upon request.