Discover new books on Goodreads

See if your friends have read any of Susan Sontag's books

more photos (2)

Susan Sontag’s Followers (5,918)

Susan Sontag

Born

in New York, New York, The United States

January 16, 1933

Died

December 28, 2004

Website

http://www.susansontag.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction, Politics

Influences

Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Thomas Mann ...more

edit data

Susan Sontag was born in New York City on January 16, 1933, grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended high school in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from the College of the University of Chicago and did graduate work in philosophy, literature, and theology at Harvard University and Saint Anne’s College, Oxford.

Her books include four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America; a collection of short stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed and Lady from the Sea; and nine works of nonfiction, starting with Against Interpretation and including On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, Regarding the Pain of Others, and At the Same Time. In 1982, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Susan Sontag was born in New York City on January 16, 1933, grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended high school in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from the College of the University of Chicago and did graduate work in philosophy, literature, and theology at Harvard University and Saint Anne’s College, Oxford.

Her books include four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America; a collection of short stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed and Lady from the Sea; and nine works of nonfiction, starting with Against Interpretation and including On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, Regarding the Pain of Others, and At the Same Time. In 1982, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Susan Sontag Reader.

Ms. Sontag wrote and directed four feature-length films: Duet for Cannibals (1969) and Brother Carl (1971), both in Sweden; Promised Lands (1974), made in Israel during the war of October 1973; and Unguided Tour (1983), from her short story of the same name, made in Italy. Her play Alice in Bed has had productions in the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Holland. Another play, Lady from the Sea, has been produced in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Korea.

Ms. Sontag also directed plays in the United States and Europe, including a staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in the summer of 1993 in besieged Sarajevo, where she spent much of the time between early 1993 and 1996 and was made an honorary citizen of the city.

A human rights activist for more than two decades, Ms. Sontag served from 1987 to 1989 as president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization dedicated to freedom of expression and the advancement of literature, from which platform she led a number of campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers.

Her stories and essays appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary publications all over the world, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Art in America, Antaeus, Parnassus, The Threepenny Review, The Nation, and Granta. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages.

Among Ms. Sontag's many honors are the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for In America (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow.

Ms. Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004. ...more

Combine Editions
Susan Sontag’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 268,863 ratings · 23,895 reviews · 198 distinct works • Similar authors

	On Photography 3.86 avg rating — 59,875 ratings — published 1973 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Regarding the Pain of Others 4.10 avg rating — 24,589 ratings — published 2003 — 86 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Against Interpretation and Other Essays 4.14 avg rating — 10,988 ratings — published 1966 — 98 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Notes on ‘Camp’ 3.97 avg rating — 10,389 ratings — published 1964 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8,252 ratings — published 1989 — 73 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Women by Susan Sontag, Merve Emre (Introduction), David Rieff (Editor) 3.63 avg rating — 5,627 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963 by Susan Sontag, David Rieff (Editor) 4.03 avg rating — 4,356 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Illness as Metaphor 3.96 avg rating — 3,756 ratings — published 1978 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Volcano Lover 3.65 avg rating — 3,471 ratings — published 1992 — 85 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In America 3.34 avg rating — 2,398 ratings — published 2000 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Susan Sontag…

Series by Susan Sontag

Journals of Susan Sontag (2 books)
by

Susan Sontag,

David Rieff (Editor)

4.04 avg rating — 6,000 ratings

Nagelaten werk deel II (1 book)
by

Susan Sontag,

David Rieff (Editor)

4.03 avg rating — 4,357 ratings

Quotes by Susan Sontag (?)

“My library is an archive of longings.”
― Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

tags: books, library, longing

3492 likes

“I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.”
― Susan Sontag

3095 likes

“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
― Susan Sontag

tags: action, attention, concentration, connection, eagerness, inspiration, intelligence, observation, vitality

2116 likes

See all Susan Sontag's quotes »

Polls

March 2021 New School Classic Poll

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, 1937, 219 pages

22 votes, 24.2%

The Castle by Franz Kafka, 1926, 316 pages

20 votes, 22.0%

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, 1950 369 pages

11 votes, 12.1%

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1915, 147 pages

9 votes, 9.9%

Maurice by E.M. Forster, 1971, 256 pages

9 votes, 9.9%

The Door by Magda Szabó, 1987, 262 pages

8 votes, 8.8%

On Photography by Susan Sontag, 1973, 224 pages

7 votes, 7.7%

The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard, 1962, 198 pages

5 votes, 5.5%

91 total votes

20 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: pjreads - frequent flyer	28	490	May 02, 2010 05:21PM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2867	1126	May 31, 2011 09:01PM
Around the World ...: pjreads ♫ - circumnavigator	10	86	Sep 22, 2011 09:15AM
The Seasonal Read...: 10.9 - Earth Signs	33	116	Jan 03, 2012 05:16PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2011: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2866	793	Feb 29, 2012 09:03PM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2291	763	Dec 28, 2012 03:29PM
Historical Fictio...: HF set in Pompeii	8	121	Feb 14, 2013 12:00PM
The Next Best Boo...: Author Alphabet	3700	3111	Mar 14, 2013 03:16PM
The Next Best Boo...: The Title Game	20218	14629	May 30, 2013 12:53PM
Around the World ...: TA: Circumnavigator / Rogue Traveler 2013	10	89	Sep 16, 2013 09:06AM

More…