Susan Sontag

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Lore & Background

Susan Sontag was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York City, the daughter of Mildred (née Jacobson) and Jack Rosenblatt, both Jews of Lithuanian and Polish descent. Her father managed a fur trading business in Tianjin, China, where he died of tuberculosis in 1939, when Susan was five years old. Seven years later, Sontag's mother married U.S. Army Captain Nathan Sontag. Susan and her sister, Judith, took their stepfather's surname. Sontag did not have a religious upbringing and said she had not entered a synagogue until her mid-20s. Remembering an unhappy childhood, with a cold, alcoholic, distant mother who was "always away", Sontag lived on Long Island, New York, then in Tucson, Arizona, and later in the San Fernando Valley in southern California, where she took refuge in books and graduated from North Hollywood High School at the age of 15. She began her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley but transferred to the University of Chicago in admiration of its prominent core curriculum. She graduated at age 18 with an A.B. and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At 17, Sontag married writer Philip Rieff, a sociology instructor at the University of Chicago, after a 10-day courtship; their marriage lasted eight years. They had a son, David Rieff, who went on to be his mother's editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Sontag completed a Master of Arts in philosophy at Harvard and began doctoral research in metaphysics, ethics, Greek philosophy, Continental philosophy, and theology at Harvard. She was awarded an American Association of University Women's fellowship for the 1957–58 academic year to St Anne's College, Oxford, then transferred after Michaelmas term of 1957 to the University of Paris (the Sorbonne). She moved to New York in 1959 to live with María Irene Fornés for the next seven years, regaining custody of her son and teaching at several universities, including the City College of New York, while her literary reputation grew.

Reader's Guide

Susan Sontag's significance lies in her wide-ranging critical essays that challenged conventional boundaries between high and low art, and her unflinching examinations of photography, illness, and war. Her 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp'" elevated camp as a serious aesthetic category. On Photography (1977) explored how photographs shape our experience of the world; Sontag wrote that "using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun." Illness as Metaphor (1978) critiqued the use of illness as a metaphor in society. She also wrote novels, including the best-selling The Volcano Lover (1992) and In America (1999). Sontag was a vocal presence in conflict zones, writing and speaking about the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. Her essays and speeches drew backlash and controversy, but she is widely regarded as one of the most influential critics of her generation. Her legacy includes a lasting impact on cultural criticism, photography theory, and the literature of illness and war.

Did You Know?

• Sontag published her first major work, the essay 'Notes on "Camp"', in 1964.
• She graduated from North Hollywood High School at age 15 and from the University of Chicago at age 18.
• Sontag married writer Philip Rieff after a 10-day courtship when she was 17.
• Her son David Rieff became her editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Sontag said she had not entered a synagogue until her mid-20s.