Susan Sontag, writer, filmmaker, professor, literary icon and political activist, was born 89 years ago today.
Beginning with the publication of her 1964 essay, "Notes on 'Camp'," Sontag became an international cultural and intellectual celebrity. Her best known works include On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, The Way We Live Now, Illness as Metaphor, Regarding the Pain of Others, The Volcano Lover and In America.
Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, and traveling to areas of conflict including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, communism and leftist ideology.
Her often provocative essays and speeches sometimes drew criticism. The New York Review of Books called her "one of the most influential critics of her generation."
Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004 at the age of 71 from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome which had evolved into acute myelogenous leukemia. She is buried in Paris at Cimetière du Montparnasse.