Susan Sontag was one of those rare thinkers who could walk into a room and change the conversation without raising her voice. But behind the iconic essays and fierce intellect lay a personal story full of love, illness, and unanswered questions. This biography traces the life of the woman who redefined how we see photography, illness, and art itself.
Born: January 16, 1933 ·
Died: December 28, 2004 ·
Notable works: Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor ·
Partner: Annie Leibovitz (1989–2004) ·
Son: David Rieff
Quick snapshot
- Born January 16, 1933 in New York City (Susan Sontag official site)
- Partner Annie Leibovitz from 1989 until her death (Bay Area Reporter)
- Died December 28, 2004 from acute myeloid leukemia (Britannica)
- Estate left to son David Rieff (Bay Area Reporter)
- Exact year of first breast cancer diagnosis (1975 or 1976) remains uncertain (Bay Area Reporter)
- Nature of post-divorce relationship with first husband Philip Rieff is not well documented (Bay Area Reporter)
- Whether she fully reconciled with the feminist movement is disputed (Bay Area Reporter)
- 1933: Born in New York City
- 1966: Published Against Interpretation
- 1975: First cancer diagnosis (reported as 1975 or 1976)
- 2004: Died from leukemia
- Scholars continue to re-evaluate her feminist legacy
- Her archives at UCLA remain a resource for new research
- Works like On Photography are still assigned in university courses worldwide
| Born | January 16, 1933, New York City (Susan Sontag official site) |
| Died | December 28, 2004, New York City (Britannica) |
| Education | B.A. University of Chicago; graduate work at Harvard and Oxford (Susan Sontag official site) |
| Notable works | Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978), The Volcano Lover (1992) (Britannica) |
| Partner | Annie Leibovitz (1989–2004) (Bay Area Reporter) |
| Son | David Rieff (Bay Area Reporter) |
| Awards | National Book Critics Circle Award (1977) for On Photography; National Book Award (2000) for In America (Bay Area Reporter) |
| PEN presidency | President of American Center of PEN (1987–1989) (Susan Sontag official site) |
What is Susan Sontag famous for?
Susan Sontag built her reputation as an American intellectual and writer whose essays reshaped modern cultural criticism. Her work spans aesthetics, politics, and the experience of illness, and she remains one of the most quoted public intellectuals of the late 20th century.
- She published her landmark essay “Notes on ‘Camp’” in 1964, which introduced the concept of camp sensibility into mainstream discourse (Royal Academy of Arts).
- Her 1966 collection Against Interpretation argued for an erotics of art rather than a hermeneutics, a position that influenced generations of critics (Britannica).
- She was also a novelist, publishing works including Death Kit (1967) and the best-selling The Volcano Lover (1992) (Royal Academy of Arts).
Sontag’s fame rests on her ability to make complex ideas accessible without diluting them. Her essays continue to be taught in universities not because they are easy, but because they demand readers to think differently.
The implication: Sontag’s cultural authority came not from a single discipline but from her willingness to cross boundaries — from film criticism to political commentary to the sociology of disease.
What happened to Susan Sontag?
Sontag’s later years were marked by love, illness, and a search for meaning that mirrored the themes of her own writing. Three questions often arise when discussing her personal story.
Were Susan Sontag and Annie Leibovitz lovers?
- Multiple biographical accounts confirm that Sontag and photographer Annie Leibovitz were romantic partners from 1989 until Sontag’s death in 2004 (Bay Area Reporter).
- Their relationship was private but well-known within cultural circles; Leibovitz’s photographs of Sontag during her final months became part of her own artistic legacy.
What was Susan Sontag’s illness?
- Sontag was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1975 (some sources report 1976) and underwent a mastectomy (Bay Area Reporter). The uncertainty around the exact year reflects the incomplete record of her early medical history.
- She later developed myelodysplastic syndrome, which progressed to acute myeloid leukemia (Britannica).
- She died from leukemia on December 28, 2004 in New York City (Britannica).
Who did Susan Sontag leave her money to?
- Sontag left her estate and literary papers to her son, writer David Rieff (Bay Area Reporter).
- Rieff later published a memoir about his mother’s final illness, Swimming in a Sea of Death (2008), which added depth to public understanding of her last years.
The exact chronology of Sontag’s cancer diagnoses remains hazy. Readers should treat dates from unofficial biographies with caution; only her death date is firmly documented by primary sources.
The pattern: Sontag’s illness experience directly fed her most personal work, Illness as Metaphor (1978), which she wrote to demystify the stigma surrounding cancer (University of Kansas Library collection guide). The book remains a landmark in medical humanities.
What is Susan Sontag’s most famous book?
Identifying Sontag’s single most celebrated work is difficult because she excelled across genres. Her essay collections, however, have had the widest and most lasting impact.
What is Susan Sontag’s most famous essay?
- “Against Interpretation” (1966) is often cited as her most seminal essay. Its opening line — “The earliest experience of art must have been that it was incantatory, magical” — sets the stage for a defense of art’s sensuous surface (Britannica).
- The collection Against Interpretation established her as a major voice in American letters and includes her famous quote: “Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art” (Wikiquote).
- On Photography (1977) won the National Book Critics Circle Award and is considered a foundational text in visual culture studies (Britannica).
- Illness as Metaphor (1978) is frequently assigned in medical and literature courses for its critique of metaphorical thinking about disease (University of Kansas Library collection guide).
The five works: one collection, two essay series, and two novels — each sold well, but On Photography and Against Interpretation remain the titles most likely to be found on a college syllabus.
What is a famous quote by Susan Sontag about art?
Sontag’s aphoristic style made her one of the most quotable intellectuals of her era. Her remarks on art and photography are particularly enduring.
What is a famous quote by Susan Sontag about photography?
- “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge — and, therefore, like power” (Wikiquote).
- Another well-known line from On Photography: “Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still” (ibid).
What is the most famous quote by Susan Sontag?
- “The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions” — from the essay “Against Interpretation” (Wikiquote).
- This quote encapsulates her belief that art should not be reduced to meaning; it should be experienced.
Sontag’s own work is frequently interpreted by critics, exactly the kind of intellectual digestion she warned against. The irony: her essays themselves become the very objects of interpretation she sought to resist.
The catch: while Sontag famously argued against interpretation, her own career depended on it. She remains a writer who is endlessly analyzed — a fate she might have both despised and secretly welcomed.
Was Susan Sontag a feminist?
Sontag’s relationship with feminism was complicated. She engaged with women’s issues in her writing but refused to align herself fully with the movement of the 1970s.
- In 1973 she published “The Third World of Women,” an essay that acknowledged systemic sexism while criticizing what she saw as feminist anti-intellectualism and separatism.
- She told interviewers that she did not feel comfortable with the label “feminist” because she believed in a universal humanism that transcended gender identity.
- Nevertheless, her work on the body, illness, and representation has been taken up by feminist theorists, especially in the areas of medical humanities and visual culture.
Why this matters: Sontag’s ambivalence highlights a tension that persists in intellectual life — the desire to be judged by one’s ideas rather than one’s identity. Her legacy in feminist thought is real, even if she never fully embraced it.
Timeline of major events
- — Born Susan Lee Sontag on January 16 in New York City (Susan Sontag official site).
- — Published Against Interpretation, establishing her as a major critic (Britannica).
- — Diagnosed with breast cancer (reportedly either 1975 or 1976) and underwent mastectomy (Bay Area Reporter).
- — Published On Photography, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award (Britannica).
- — Published Illness as Metaphor (Britannica).
- — Met photographer Annie Leibovitz; began a long-term relationship (Bay Area Reporter).
- — Published best-selling novel The Volcano Lover (Royal Academy of Arts).
- — Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia; died December 28 (Britannica).
What we know and what remains unclear
Confirmed facts
- Sontag and Annie Leibovitz were lovers (confirmed by multiple sources including the Bay Area Reporter).
- She died from acute myeloid leukemia (Britannica).
- Her estate was left to her son David Rieff (Bay Area Reporter).
- Her most famous books include On Photography and Against Interpretation (Britannica).
- She had breast cancer in the mid-1970s (Bay Area Reporter).
What’s unclear
- The exact year of her first cancer diagnosis (1975 or 1976) is not firmly established (Bay Area Reporter).
- The nature of her relationship with first husband Philip Rieff after their divorce is poorly documented.
- Whether she ever fully reconciled with the feminist movement remains a matter of scholarly debate.
Notable quotes
“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.”
Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation (1966)
“To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge — and, therefore, like power.”
Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977)
“American intellectual and writer best known for her essays on modern culture.”
Britannica
For anyone trying to understand the role of the public intellectual today, Sontag’s example is both inspiring and cautionary: embrace ideas with passion, but be prepared for the personal cost. The trade-off for her legacy was a life lived under the shadow of disease and public scrutiny — a price she paid without apology.
Related reading: Terry Pratchett: Biography, Books, and Lasting Legacy
openlibrary.org, cdn.penguin.co.uk, thelondonmagazine.org, thetelos.org, ebsco.com, scrapsfromtheloft.com
Frequently asked questions
What was Susan Sontag’s childhood like?
Sontag grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended high school in Los Angeles. She was a precocious reader and entered university early (Susan Sontag official site).
Did Susan Sontag have any siblings?
She had a younger sister, Judith Sontag Cohen, but little is publicly known about their relationship.
What awards did Susan Sontag win?
She won the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1977) and the National Book Award for In America (2000) (Bay Area Reporter).
What is Susan Sontag’s best-known novel?
The Volcano Lover (1992) was a bestseller and is considered her most commercially successful novel (Royal Academy of Arts).
How did Susan Sontag influence art criticism?
Her essay “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964) and On Photography (1977) are foundational texts in visual culture and art criticism (Royal Academy of Arts).
Was Susan Sontag married?
She was briefly married to sociologist Philip Rieff from 1951 to 1959, with whom she had her son David (Susan Sontag official site).
What is Susan Sontag’s legacy?
She is remembered as one of the most influential public intellectuals of the late 20th century, whose work continues to shape discussions on aesthetics, illness, and culture.
Arthur Oliver Howard Fletcher is a staff writer for NationalReport.uk, covering UK national news, politics, the economy and public services. He works under Editor-in-Chief Andreas Christodoulou and UK Managing Editor Rebecca Morgan, following the newsroom standards for sourcing, verification and fact-checking set out in our editorial policies.