Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview

Susan Sontag, one of the most internationally renowned and controversial intellectuals of the latter half of the twentieth century, still provokes. In 1978 Jonathan Cott, a founding contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine, interviewed Sontag first in Paris and later in New York. Only a third of their twelve hours of discussion ever made it to print. Now, more than three decades later, the entire transcript of Sontag's remarkable conversation, accompanied by Cott's preface and recollections, has been published. Sontag's musings and observations reveal the passionate engagement and breadth of her critical intelligence and curiosities at a moment when she was at the peak of her powers. Nearly a decade after her death, these hours of conversation offer a revelatory and indispensable look at the self-described 'besotted aesthete' and 'obsessed moralist'. 'The full, wide-ranging magnificence of their tete-a-tete, spanning literature, philosophy, illness, mental health, music, art, and much more, is at last released. . . . A rare glimpse of one of modern history's greatest minds in her element.' - Maria Popova, Brain Pickings; selected by Popova as one of the Best Books of 2013 'A strong and deeply personal argument about what it means to be cultured.' - Mark O'Connell, Slate 'A great resource for longtime followers of the critic and novelist, as well as for those encountering this great mind for the first time.' - Publishers Weekly