REBORN: JOURNALS & NOTEBOOKS, 1947-1963 by Sontag, Susan (Author) & Rieff, David (Editor) - 2008

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 318 pages. The author's earliest journals, published posthumously. One of the most important literary texts of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Susan Sontag's "Reborn: Journals & Notebooks, 1947-1963". The first of her projected three-volume journals. "Extraordinary for all the reasons we would expect from Sontag's writing: Extreme seriousness, stunning authority, intolerance toward mediocrity. Sontag's vulnerability throughout will also utterly surprise the late critic and novelist's fans and detractors. At 15, when these journals began, Sontag already displayed her ferocious intellect and hunger for experience and culture. What is most remarkable is watching Sontag grow into one of the century's leading minds. In these carefully selected excerpts, Sontag details her developing thoughts, her voluminous reading and daily movie-going, her life as a teenage college student at Berkeley discovering her sexuality, meeting and marrying her professor, Philip Rieff, with whom, at the age of 18, she had David, her only child. Watching Sontag become herself is nothing short of cathartic" (Publishers Weekly). "What ultimately matters about Sontag is what she has defended: The life of the mind and the necessity of reading and writing as a way of being fully human" (Hilary Mantel). What finally matters about Sontag is that four years after her tragic death (in 2004), she remains irreplaceable, has not and will not be replaced, one-of-a-kind, many immensely talented writers and critics in our midst notwithstanding. An absolute "must-have" title for Susan Sontag collectors. <b><i> This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977 for "On Photography", the National Book Award in 2000 for "In America", and the Jerusalem Prize in 2001. Shimon Peres, in awarding the Jerusalem Prize, described Sontag as "one of the world's finest writers and greatest minds". One of the most influential and important writer-intellectuals of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER SUSAN SONTAG TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374100748.