As a poet he was published in Trend, for which he served as an editorial staffer beginning in 1914.
As a novelist, his 1929 novel Prima Donna was called by one New York Times critic “an amazing achievement; nothing quite like it has been done in this country before.” He went on to put Sanborn in the same league as Willa Cather, Edith Wharton and Thornton Wilder.
He was a good friend and sometimes lover of Carl Van Vechten, whom he convinced to assume the editorship of Trend.
Sanborn died at 61 of an apparent heart attack in his Greenwich Village apartment a few hours after he had attended a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House.
This biographical article related to music journalism in the United States is a stub.