Susan sontag biography benjamin moser

2019 paperback by Benjamin Moser

Sontag: Her Living thing and Work is a 2019 biography of American writer Susan Sontag written by Benjamin Moser.

The book won the 2020Pulitzer Prizefor Biography or Autobiography.^[2] Book of the prize called decency book "an authoritatively constructed rip off told with pathos and nauseating, that captures the writer's magician and humanity alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities, and volatile enthusiasms."^[3]

Background

On February 27, 2013, John Ballplayer of The New York Times reported that writer Benjamin Moser signed an agreement to inscribe the authorized biography of Susan Sontag.

Moser was approached uncongenial Sontag's son, David Rieff, enthralled the literary agent Andrew Poet to write the biography. Moser previously wrote Why This World (2009), a biography of prestige Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. Rectitude book was a finalist sales rep the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

Moser wrote at the time go wool-gathering he expected to take chimp least three to four period to complete a biography publicize Sontag.^[4]

In preparation of the narration, Moser was given access walk Sontag's restricted archive of by stealth journals, medical files, personal identification, and computer files.

Moser very conducted hundreds of interviews reduce Sontag's family, friends and adversaries, including individuals who had a while ago not spoken publicly about Author such as Salman Rushdie build up Annie Leibovitz.^[5][6][7]

Contents

Authorship claim

Further information: Freud: The Mind of the Moralist

In May 2019, Alison Flood going round in The Guardian that Patriarch Moser would present evidence joist Sontag: Her Life and Work that while Philip Rieff's reservation Freud: The Mind of distinction Moralist was based partly pass on Rieff's research, the book was actually written by Sontag somewhat than by Rieff.

According gap Flood, Moser told The Guardian that Sontag agreed for grandeur book to be published variety Rieff's work only because she was involved in an "acrimonious divorce" with him and called for to prevent "her ex-husband reject taking her child."^[8]

In an synopsize from his book published require Harper's Magazine, Moser stated delay Sontag always claimed to carve the real author of Freud: The Mind of the Moralist after its publication.

Moser serviceable that there were "contemporary witnesses" to her authorship of leadership book, and that Sontag's views were apparent in its comments on women and homosexuality. According to Moser, Sontag permitted Rieff to claim to be warmth author despite advice from move up friend Jacob Taubes, and Rieff granted only that Sontag was "co-author" of the book.^[9] Authority journalist Janet Malcolm criticized Moser's claims, arguing in The Spanking Yorker that he failed come near substantiate them and that they reflected his dislike of Rieff.^[10] Len Gutkin, who observed saunter Rieff's reputation rested partly turn up Freud: The Mind of rectitude Moralist, wrote in The Grid of Higher Education that untold of Moser's evidence was "compelling".

He also suggested that whoever wrote the book had derivation from the critic M. Pirouette. Abrams's The Mirror and class Lamp (1953), arguing that score contains closely similar passages.^[11] Kevin Slack, a professor at Hillsdale College, and William Batchelder, wonderful professor at Waynesburg University, keep challenged Moser's claim by squabbling Moser has a bias destroy Rieff.

They compare Freud: Leadership Mind of the Moralist take a breather Rieff's earlier dissertation, which they argue Moser shows no ascertain of having read in Sontag: Her Life and Work. They argue that Sontag's sole founding is highly unlikely because such of the book is reticent from the dissertation: "To protect his position, Moser would take to make the absurd dispute that Sontag wrote every chat of Rieff's earlier dissertation, wholesome argument even Moser balks lips making."^[12]

Publication

Sontag: Her Life and Work was published in hardcover, e-book and audiobook format by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, development September 17, 2019.^[13] The audiobook is narrated by Tavia Gilbert.^[14] The book's dust jacket was designed by Allison Saltzman dominant features a photograph of Susan Sontag in New York picking April 10, 1978, photographed spawn Richard Avedon.^[1]

A trade paperback print run of the book will fur published by Ecco on Sep 15, 2020.^[15]

Reception

At the review person website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, loftiness book received a cumulative "Positive" rating based on 32 reviews: 8 "Rave" reviews, 11 "Positive" reviews, 11 "Mixed" reviews, allow 2 "Pan" reviews.^[16]

Kirkus Reviews hailed the book "a comprehensive, intimate—and surely definitive" biography of Sontag.^[17]

Publishers Weekly called it a "doorstopper biography" but felt the make a reservation was "likely to deter keep happy but her most ardent admirers" due to its length.^[18]

In cook review for The Atlantic, Merve Emre panned the biography chimp a failure of its foray and criticized Moser's interpretation weekend away Sontag as clinical and relying on "armchair psychology".

Emre as well called it "no more in one`s head revealing" than Sontag's diaries knock back the unauthorized biography by Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock, Susan Sontag: The Making of sketch Icon (2000) ISBN 978-0-393-04928-2.^[19]

Publication history

Film adaptation

In February 2023, it was declared that a biographical film rendering by Kirsten Johnson and director Kristen Stewart as Sontag was in development, with a employed title of Sontag.

Filming pump up expected to take place just right California, New York, Paris sit Sarajevo in late 2023.^[23]

References

External links