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Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon Hardcover – July 1, 2000

by Carl Rollyson (Author), Lisa Paddock (Author)

3.7 6 ratings

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"The book neither sympathizes with its subject nor trashes her. A kind of semiruthless, semi-good-natured impersonality prevails throughout....This book never penetrates the glazed surface of Sontag's appearance or the formal character of her work....[However] many interviews were conducted with friends and enemies alike, the reader is left knowing that a wall still stands behind which Susan Sontag lurks, undetected and unknown." ―Vivian Gornick, Salon, 08/01/2000

The first--and unauthorized--biography of the so-called dark lady of American letters. Ever since she took American culture by storm with the publication of her Notes on Camp in 1964, Susan Sontag has been a star. Her austere glamour has been a critical factor in her success, making her a role model for intellectual women, a sex symbol for brainy men. She has never ceased to fascinate the public: as brilliant wunderkind, bringing the latest in French thought to America; as sophisticated analyst of her own experience with cancer in Illness as Metaphor; as champion of free speech in the Rushdie Affair; as theater director in besieged Sarajevo; and, with the publication of The Volcano Lover, as best-selling historical novelist. Yet she has both courted that fascination and insisted on holding it at a distance, demanding control over her public image. This first--and most definitely unauthorized--biography delves beneath the surface to examine the forces that made Susan Sontag an international icon. Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock explore her public persona and private passions, including the strategies behind her meteoric rise to fame and her political moves and missteps. Above all, they show how the life of Susan Sontag reveals to us the way we live now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Known variously (and with varying degrees of kindness) as "the Beatnik Boadicea," "the Paganini of criticism " and "the most curious person alive," Susan SontagAcritic, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, public intellectualAhas consistently provoked awe, distrust, veneration and fear as one of the most perceptive, talented and controversial of American writers and thinkers. Although she has occupied a central place in the twin worlds of literary and popular culture since her influential first essays appeared in the Partisan Review in the early 1960s, this is the first full-length biography and one of the few critical studies of the author and her work. Rollyson and Paddock have unearthed a deluge of information on Sontag's personal lifeAon her early years and family life, her lesbianism (which she has only recently publicly acknowledged), her relationship with son David Rieff and her battles with breast cancer. While the authors provide an intelligent, though not strikingly original, analysis of her work, they are best at detailing how Sontag and her publishers have marketed her image as much as her thought. Often the book has a casual feel that undercuts its seriousness, and Rollyson and Paddock frequently seem willing to quote anyone who will criticize Sontag (Camille Paglia's remarks come off as petty and self-promoting). Yet in the end, this is a respectful, informed first look at an important writer's life. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The writer Susan Sontag has turned down very little publicity over the years since setting American criticism on its ear with her essay "On Camp" in 1964. But, while the authors of this first life of Sontag acknowledge her uneasiness with the possible disclosures of biography, perhaps this reluctance has more to do with a legitimate fear of being trivialized. Rollyson and Paddock are far more deft on the subject of Sontag's evolving celebrity and famously glamorous book jacket photos than on her contributions to cultural criticism (e.g., Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor) or fiction (Death Kit, "The Way We Live Now," The Volcano Lover). The authors follow Sontag from her lonely, bookish childhood in Tucson, AZ, through her brilliant days at the University of Chicago and Harvard, early marriage and motherhood, divorce, life in Europe and New York, and journeys to China, Vietnam, Israel, and Sarajevo. The book sometimes has a tone of reluctant chattiness in discussing her literary rivalries or romantic quarrels with male and female lovers, and Sontag's lack of cooperation shows especially in the childhood sections that draw on published interviews. Her trademark hair turns up so often in the journalistic narrative that it gains a kind of sidekick status by book's end. An optional purchase, especially for libraries already owning A Susan Sontag Reader (1982).
-DNathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition (July 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393049280
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393049282
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.68 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,353,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,669 in Rich & Famous Biographies
- #19,851 in Author Biographies
- #39,067 in Women's Biographies

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3.7 6 ratings

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Carl Rollyson

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Carl Rollyson, Professor of Journalism at Baruch College, The City University of New York, has published more than forty books ranging in subject matter from biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, and Jill Craigie to studies of American culture, genealogy, children's biography, film, and literary criticism. He has authored more than 500 articles on American and European literature and history. His work has been reviewed in newspapers such as The New York Times and the London Sunday Telegraph and in journals such as American Literature and the Dictionary of Literary Biography. For four years (2003-2007) he wrote a weekly column, "On Biography," for The New York Sun and was President of the Rebecca West Society (2003-2007). His play, THAT WOMAN: REBECCA WEST REMEMBERS, has been produced at Theatresource in New York City. Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography (awarded a "We the People" NEH grant) will be published in August 2013. . "Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews, a biography of Dana Andrews was published in September 2012 by University Press of Mississippi. His biography, "American Isis: The Life and Death of Sylvia Plath" was published in February 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of her death. In 2013, he also published Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography, and in 2014 Marilyn Monroe Day by Day. His biography/memoir A Private Life of Michael Foot will be published in August 2015. He is currently at work on two books, Memoirs of a Serial Biographer and a biography of William Faulkner. His reviews of biography appear regularly in The Wall Street Journal, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Raleigh News & Observer, The Kansas City Star, and The New Criterion. He is currently advisory editor for the Hollywood Legends series published by the University Press of Mississippi. He welcomes queries from those interested in contributing to the series. Read his column, "Biographology," and his blog on http://carlrollyson.com.

The Last Days of Sylvia Plath,

https://youtu.be/ftruv5i9WfM

American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath. Book trailer: https://youtu.be/M54HJRqrOlU

The Life of William Faulkner: Volume 1: The Past is Never Dead. Book trailer: https://youtu.be/shPFvA06_sM

The Life of William Faulkner: Volume 2: This Alarming Paradox. Book trailer: https://vimeo.com/424521449

Another video on why I decided to write a Faulkner biography: https://youtu.be/LVx0SJX4GQg

EXCERPT from The Life of William Faulkner

https://lithub.com/young-william-faulkner-in-the-french-quarter/

ARTICLES on William Faulkner

https://uvamagazine.org/articles/william_faulkner_uva

https://momentmag.com/faulkner-the-anti-fascist/

https://hedgehogreview.com/blog/thr/posts/faulkner-as-futurist

https://popularculturereview.wordpress.com/2020/06/25/rollyson-2/

http://classicmovieman.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-revisionist-view-of-reivers-novel.html

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/03/old-rowan-oak-conservatism-william-faulkner.html

https://lithub.com/uncovering-the-hidden-love-lives-of-sylvia-plath-and-william-faulkner/

https://brightlightsfilm.com/the-cinematic-faulkner-framing-hollywood/#.XqCVgGhKjIU

http://page99test.blogspot.com/2020/03/carl-rollysons-last-days-of-sylvia-plath.html

https://medium.com/@simplycharly/the-saddest-words-william-faulkners-civil-war-simply-charly-7588fc602218

VIDEO INTERVIEWS

Philadelphia Athenaeum https://youtu.be/Cjr_KapycSQ

https://www.upress.virginia.edu/2020/05/13/listen-uva-press-presents-interview-carl-rollyson-author-life-william-faulkner-and

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/carl-rollyson-the-life

https://youtu.be/Dn_0-ypQuqM (with Larry Wells)

https://youtu.be/NILXMhUZDqk (on my career as a biographer).

Audio interviews

https://www.upress.virginia.edu/2020/05/13/listen-uva-press-presents-interview-carl-rollyson-author-life-william-faulkner-and

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2020/04/who-was-william-faulkner

https://newbooksnetwork.com/carl-rollyson-the-life-of-william-faulkner-the-past-is-never-dead-1897-1934-uva-press-2020/

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-life-of-william-faulkner

ONLINE INTERVIEWS

https://simplycharly.com/read/interviews/a-novelist-and-a-fabulist-carl-rollyson-separates-fact-from-fiction-in-william-faulkner-life

https://sway.office.com/eCX6pxGdgCjeMAbo?ref=Link {Questions for Carl Rollyson, interviewed by Christopher Rieger, Center for Faulkner Studies.}

Book trailers, vol 1 & 2: https://youtu.be/shPFvA06_sM; https://vimeo.com/424521449

Another video on why I decided to write a Faulkner biography: https://youtu.be/LVx0SJX4GQg

My weekly podcast: https://anchor.fm/carl-rollyson

MORE BOOK TRAILERS

Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews. https://youtu.be/G7xyz9sL3HA

A Private Life of Michael Foot. https://youtu.be/HVNFrNUmY58

Norman Mailer: The Last Romantic. https://youtu.be/D7Xa6Wzm6MM

A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan. https://youtu.be/t2-VkVtaWyU

Confessions of a Serial Biographer. https://youtu.be/0TXiStzlXaI

Marilyn Monroe: Day by Day. https://youtu.be/olt9FvDWWu4

Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress. https://youtu.be/3Ep8W6fx14s

Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography. https://youtu.be/sJ7Ae4rEjSk

Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon, revised and updated. https://youtu.be/5u1puSBpTiU

Audition script for NORMAN MAILER: THE LAST ROMANTIC: http://www.carlrollyson.com/_i_norman_mailer__the_last_romantic__i__113276.htm

MY REVIEWS

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-rollyson/the-life-of-william-faulkner/

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-rollyson/life-william-faulkner/

https://mailchi.mp/newcriterion.com/the-critics-notebook-ornamented-streets-a-full-cycle-of-suites-770678?e=7d12600e52

http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/bookreview/the-life-of-william-faulkner-the-past-is-never-dead-1897-1934

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8139-4382-4

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8139-4440-1

https://medium.com/@simplycharly/the-saddest-words-william-faulkners-civil-war-simply-charly-7588fc602218

SYLVIA PLATH

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/carl-rollyson

My Plath-related podcasts: anchor.fm/carl-rollyson: #1: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath; #4: A Tale of Two Bioraphies; #5 Sylvia Plath Meet Rebecca West; #8 How to end a biography; #23 Reviewing Biography: The Case of Sylvia Plath; #26 What is a definitive biography?

Videos:

The Last Days of Sylvia Plath, publisher’s website and link to book trailer:

https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-Last-Days-of-Sylvia-Plath

Another video on why I decided to write a second biography of Sylvia Plath: https://youtu.be/yOZSulanSFU

Reviews

https://www.startribune.com/review-the-last-days-of-sylvia-plath-by-carl-rollyson/568768382/

https://newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/done-it-again

https://modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2020/07/03/book-review-mirrored-in-a-glowing-cover-carl-rollysons-the-last-days-of-sylvia-plath/

Articles

https://lithub.com/uncovering-the-hidden-love-lives-of-sylvia-plath-and-william-faulkner/

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5

6 global ratings

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Harvey87

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2016

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Interesting if a little long-winded.

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James Street

We can't comment on the accuracy of a biography with any

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2008

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degree of certainty unless we've done research ourselves or unless we have several top rated biographies to compare with.

There are no great biographies of Susan Sontag and few of us know her life well, from our personal experience! I believe this book is the best we have.

I'm sorry to say that I have never cared for Susan Sontag's literary work or for her literary criticism and my belief is that neither will survive her death. We shouldn't be surprised at this: Historically, the reputation of writers who have been famous in their own time has very often died along with them.

Hundreds of famous writers from the past, such as Monk Lewis, Anne Radcliffe and Edgar Wallace were as well known as Stephen King, Tom Clancy and J.K. Rawlings today but are unknown to all but a few specialists now, while many, many great writers such as Stendhal, Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson died in obscurity but are among the greatest writers we have.

Even if this biography paints Susan Sontag in a less favorable light than is justified, I think it remains an object lesson for what writers and other creative people should NOT do, which is to try to become rich and famous bringing wisdom and intelligence to the human race: Almost all the world's great religions and philosophies tell us that truth tellers are more often reviled in their own time than revered and that the crowd more often hoists onto its shoulders those who flatter it than those who tell it the truth. We know what happens to most of the truth tellers.

6 people found this helpful

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Lorena Cassady

A Study in Arrogance and Entitlement

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2015

Well written and balanced. I have no ax to grind here...as a creature of the sixties I heard Sontag's name, of course, though she never really came through to me like other intellectuals/writers of the period, i.e. Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, William Buckley, Germaine Greer, Susan Faludi, Barbara Ehrenreich, Groucho Marx :). I've suffered through people like Sontag in my life, and thought the book was a testament to her instability and unfathomable need to take her place in the small, exclusionary group of writers and publishers in New York. I noticed that the book had no blurbs, and assumed from this that her friends and enemies alike were too afraid to put their name where they had left their scent. On balance I don't think I missed much when I missed Sontag, and yet here I am, mesmerized.

One person found this helpful

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Marion Meade

A Biography You Can't Put Down

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2000

Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock have done an admirable job. It's hard to imagine a more delicious account of how a bright, imaginative girl from North Hollywood High manufactured and marketed herself as an international literary icon. To get at the truth, the authors have stripped off the gilt and the result is a startling portrait that is sure to generate controversy. This is a biography that is hard to put down.

13 people found this helpful

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Suzinne Barrett

Susan Sontag: An Icon and an Enigma

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2009

I enjoyed this book, and found that it was well written. Having just finished it, let me advise the potential reader that this book is slanted, and, for sure, Susan Sontag was not an individual to get warm and fuzzy with. Reading about her and her partner in her later life, Annie Leibowitz, I realized one thing: these two must have been the most insufferable lesbian couple ever. Both were so convinced of their own superiority, and both demanded that the world cow-tow to them for their specialness. Also, Sontag's son, who went on to edit his mother's work, also had the same sense of entitlement. For example, it is revealed that Susan's publisher, Robert Giroux, and her son would hound reviewers who were critical of her work. She seemed to believe she shouldn't have to suffer the same slings and arrows any other author would be subject to.

What I found most fascinating, and truly the strongest part of this book, were the stories revolving around various people in Susan Sontag's life. A much loved phrase of hers was "acquirement and disburdenment," which describes her pattern of dealing with people over the years. Four friends/fellow artists are revealed in some depth: fellow writers, Arthur Chesler and Camille Paglia, photographer, Peter Huyar, and box collage artist, Joseph Cornell. These were the most interesting people in the book, and these same people Ms. Sontag "acquired and disburdened." I was left wanting to know more about them, and this presents a problem when the peripheral characters prove more interesting than the subject of this book.

7 people found this helpful

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