Sontag: Her Life and Work

On February 27, 2013, John Williams of The New York Times reported that writer Benjamin Moser signed an agreement to write the authorized biography of Susan Sontag. Moser was approached by Sontag's son, David Rieff, and the literary agent Andrew Wylie to write the biography. Moser previously wrote Why This World (2009), a biography of the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. The book was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Moser wrote at the time that he expected to take at least three to four years to complete a biography of Sontag.{{Cite web |title=Benjamin Moser to Write Sontag Biography |url=https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/benjamin-moser-to-write-sontag-biography/ |last=Williams |first=John |date=February 27, 2013 |website=ArtsBeat |publisher=The New York Times |access-date=May 5, 2020}}

In preparation of the biography, Moser was given access to Sontag's restricted archive of unpublished journals, medical files, personal papers, and computer files. Moser also conducted hundreds of interviews with Sontag's family, friends and adversaries, including individuals who had previously not spoken publicly about Sontag such as Salman Rushdie and Annie Leibovitz.{{Cite web |title=Sontag: Her Life and Work |url=https://www.benmoser.com/books/sontag/ |website=Benjamin Moser |access-date=May 5, 2020}}{{Cite web |title=Benjamin Moser - Sontag: Her Life and Work — in conversation with Elizabeth Bruenig |url=https://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/benjamin-moser-sontag-her-life-and-work-in-conversation-elizabeth-bruenig |date=September 17, 2019 |website=Politics and Prose |access-date=May 5, 2020}}{{Cite web |title=Book Review - Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser |url=https://bookpage.com/reviews/24431-benjamin-moser-sontag-biography |last=Carrigan Jr. |first=Henry L. |date=October 2019 |website=BookPage |access-date=May 5, 2020}}

{{further|Freud: The Mind of the Moralist}}

In May 2019, Alison Flood reported in The Guardian that Benjamin Moser would present evidence in Sontag: Her Life and Work that while Philip Rieff's book Freud: The Mind of the Moralist was based partly on Rieff's research, the book was actually written by Sontag rather than by Rieff. According to Flood, Moser told The Guardian that Sontag agreed for the book to be published as Rieff's work only because she was involved in an "acrimonious divorce" with him and wanted to prevent "her ex-husband from taking her child."{{cite web |last1=Flood|first1=Alison |url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/13/susan-sontag-her-life-benjamin-moser-freud-the-mind-of-the-moralist-philip-rieff | title = Susan Sontag was true author of ex-husband's book, biography claims |date=May 13, 2019 |work=The Guardian |access-date = May 14, 2019}}

In an extract from his book published in Harper's Magazine, Moser stated that Sontag always claimed to be the real author of Freud: The Mind of the Moralist after its publication. Moser maintained that there were "contemporary witnesses" to her authorship of the 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 its author despite advice from her friend Jacob Taubes, and Rieff granted only that Sontag was "co-author" of the book.{{cite magazine |last1=Moser|first1=Benjamin |url = https://harpers.org/archive/2019/09/sontag-her-life-and-work-benjamin-moser/ | title = Regarding the Pen of Others |date=August 29, 2019 |magazine=Harper's Magazine |access-date = August 29, 2019}} The journalist Janet Malcolm criticized Moser's claims, arguing in The New Yorker that he failed to substantiate them and that they reflected his dislike of Rieff.{{cite magazine |last1=Malcolm|first1=Janet |author-link=Janet Malcolm |url = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/23/susan-sontag-and-the-unholy-practice-of-biography | title = Susan Sontag and the unholy practice of biography |date=September 23, 2019 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date = October 15, 2019}} Len Gutkin, who observed that Rieff's reputation rested partly on Freud: The Mind of the Moralist, wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education that much of Moser's evidence was "compelling". He also suggested that whoever wrote the book had plagiarized from the critic M. H. Abrams's The Mirror and the Lamp (1953), arguing that it contains closely similar passages.{{cite web |last1=Gutkin|first1=Len |url = https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20191011-Gutkin-Sontag | title = A Tale of Two Plagiarists: Did Susan Sontag's husband steal credit for her first book? |date=October 11, 2019 |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education |access-date = October 15, 2019}} Kevin Slack, a professor at Hillsdale College, and William Batchelder, a professor at Waynesburg University, have challenged Moser's claim by arguing Moser has a bias against Rieff. They compare Freud: The Mind of the Moralist to Rieff's earlier dissertation, which they argue Moser shows no evidence of having read in Sontag: Her Life and Work. They argue that Sontag's sole authorship is highly unlikely because much of the book is drawn from the dissertation: "To defend his position, Moser would have to make the absurd argument that Sontag wrote every word of Rieff's earlier dissertation, an argument even Moser balks at making."{{Cite web |title=Susan Sontag Was Not the Sole Author of Freud: The Mind of the Moralist |url=https://voegelinview.com/susan-sontag-was-not-the-sole-author-of-freud-the-mind-of-the-moralist/ |last1=Slack |first1=Kevin |last2=Batchelder |first2=William |date=May 11, 2020 |website=VoegelinView |access-date=May 16, 2020}}

Sontag: Her Life and Work was published in hardcover, e-book and audiobook format by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, on September 17, 2019.{{Cite web |title=Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062896391/sontag/ |website=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=May 4, 2020}} The audiobook is narrated by Tavia Gilbert.{{Cite web |title=Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser, narrated by Tavia Gilbert |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062957856/sontag/ |website=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=May 5, 2020}} The book's dust jacket was designed by Allison Saltzman and features a photograph of Susan Sontag in New York on April 10, 1978, photographed by Richard Avedon.{{cite book|first=Benjamin|last=Moser|title=Sontag: Her Life and Work|date=September 17, 2019|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-289639-1}}

A trade paperback edition of the book will be published by Ecco on September 15, 2020.{{Cite web |title=Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062896407/sontag/ |website=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=May 4, 2020}}

Kirkus Reviews called the book "a comprehensive, intimate—and surely definitive" biography of Sontag.{{Cite web |title=Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/benjamin-moser/sontag/ |date=June 11, 2019 |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=May 5, 2020}}

Publishers Weekly called it a "doorstopper biography" but felt the book was "likely to deter all but her most ardent admirers" due to its length.{{Cite web |title=Nonfiction Book Review: Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-289639-1 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=May 5, 2020}}

In her review for The Atlantic, Merve Emre panned the biography as a failure of its subject and criticized Moser's interpretation of Sontag as clinical and relying on "armchair psychology". Emre also called it "no more psychologically revealing" than Sontag's diaries or the unauthorized biography by Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock, Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon (2000) {{ISBN|978-0-393-04928-2}}.{{Cite magazine |last=Emre |first=Merve |title=Misunderstanding Susan Sontag |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/10/misunderstanding-susan-sontag/596653/ |magazine=The Atlantic |edition=October 2019 |access-date=May 14, 2020}}

• {{Cite book |title=Sontag: Her Life and Work |publisher=Ecco |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-06-289639-1 |location=New York}}
• {{Cite book |title=Sontag: Her Life |publisher=Allen Lane |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-241-00348-0 |location=London}}{{Cite web |title=Sontag |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253/253432/sontag/9780241003480.html |website=Penguin Books UK |access-date=May 4, 2020}}
• {{Cite book |title=Sontag. Haar leven en werk |publisher=De Arbeiderspers |year=2019 |isbn=978-90-295-3978-4 |location=Amsterdam |language=nl |translator-last=Biekmann |translator-first=Lidwien}}{{Cite web |title=Sontag |url=https://www.singeluitgeverijen.nl/de-arbeiderspers/boek/sontag/ |website=De Arbeiderspers |publisher=Singel Uitgeverijen |access-date=May 5, 2020}}
• {{Cite book |title=Sontag: Vida e Obra |publisher=Companhia das Letras |year=2019 |isbn=978-85-359-3283-6 |location=São Paulo |language=pt |translator-last=Couto |translator-first=José Geraldo}}{{Cite web |title=SONTAG |url=https://www.companhiadasletras.com.br/detalhe.php?codigo=14145 |website=Grupo Companhia das Letras |access-date=May 5, 2020}}

In February 2023, it was announced that a biographical film adaptation by Kirsten Johnson and starring Kristen Stewart as Sontag was in development, with a working title of Sontag. Filming was expected to take place in California, New York, Paris and Sarajevo in late 2023.{{Cite web |last=Tabbara |first=Mona |title=Kristen Stewart to star as influential US writer Susan Sontag in Brouhaha Entertainment feature (exclusive) |url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/kristen-stewart-to-star-as-influential-us-writer-susan-sontag-in-brouhaha-entertainment-feature-exclusive/5179023.article |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Screen Daily}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062896391/sontag/ Sontag: Her Life and Work] at Harpercollins.com
• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?463990-1/sontag Presentation by Moser on Sontag: Her Life and Work, September 19, 2019], C-SPAN

{{Susan Sontag}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2019 non-fiction books

Category:American biographies

Category:Biographies about writers

Category:Ecco Press books

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography–winning works