Author Guide · Essays, Criticism & Fiction
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Susan Sontag was 31 when “Notes on ‘Camp’” appeared in Partisan Review in 1964: fifty-eight numbered notes that treated a supposedly frivolous taste with the seriousness critics kept for high art, and made her famous almost overnight. Born in New York in 1933, she had finished her degree at the University of Chicago at eighteen. Over the next four decades she wrote about photography, cancer, AIDS, fascist aesthetics and war, directed films, staged Waiting for Godot in besieged Sarajevo in 1993, and in 2000 won the National Book Award for a novel, In America. This guide covers her fourteen key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 14 key books · 1963–2007 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Susan Sontag’s best-known books are On Photography (1977), Against Interpretation (1966), which contains “Notes on ‘Camp’”, Illness as Metaphor (1978) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003). Her novel In America won the National Book Award in 2000. Start with Against Interpretation, where her voice as a critic is first fully formed.
Where to Start with Susan Sontag
If you want the essays that made her name
→ Against Interpretation (1966) — including “Notes on ‘Camp’”.
If you want to think about images
→ On Photography (1977) — then read Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), where she revisits it.
If you want her most personal argument
→ Illness as Metaphor (1978) — written after her own cancer diagnosis.
If you want her as a novelist
→ The Volcano Lover (1992) — her most widely read novel.
14 Susan Sontag Books, in Order
The Benefactor
Her first book. Hippolyte, an elderly Frenchman, looks back on a life spent trying to live out his dreams, which he records and interprets in detail and which come to rule his waking choices. It is written in the cool, detached manner of the French nouveau roman.
Against Interpretation
Her first essay collection, gathering the criticism she wrote in the early 1960s. It includes “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964) and the title essay, which argues that critics dig for hidden meanings instead of attending to what a work actually does, and ends by calling for “an erotics of art”. Other pieces cover Camus, Simone Weil, Godard, Bresson and science-fiction films.
Death Kit
Diddy, a salesman who has recently tried to kill himself, kills a railway worker in a dark tunnel when his train stops on a business trip — or believes he does. The novel follows him through the aftermath, never settling how much of it happens and how much takes place in his head.
Styles of Radical Will
Her second essay collection, moving from aesthetics towards politics. It includes “The Aesthetics of Silence”, “The Pornographic Imagination”, essays on Bergman’s Persona and on Godard, and “Trip to Hanoi”, her account of visiting North Vietnam during the war in 1968.
On Photography
Six essays, first published in The New York Review of Books from 1973, on what photographs do to the way we see. Sontag argues that photographing turns experience into something to collect, that the camera’s apparent neutrality hides choices about framing, and that a flood of images can dull rather than sharpen our response. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.
Illness as Metaphor
A long essay written after she was treated for breast cancer in the mid-1970s. Comparing the myths that grew around tuberculosis in the nineteenth century with those around cancer in her own time, she argues that such metaphors — illness as punishment, or as the result of a repressed personality — add shame to suffering, and that disease is best seen without them.
I, etcetera
Her only story collection published in her lifetime: eight pieces that move between fiction and essay. “Project for a Trip to China” circles the country where her father died when she was five; “Debriefing” and “Unguided Tour” later gave their titles to films she made.
Under the Sign of Saturn
Essays on writers and artists, including Walter Benjamin (the title essay), Antonin Artaud, Roland Barthes, Elias Canetti, Paul Goodman and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg. It also contains “Fascinating Fascism”, her analysis of Leni Riefenstahl’s photographs and films and the appeal of fascist aesthetics.
AIDS and Its Metaphors
A sequel to Illness as Metaphor, written a decade later at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Sontag examines the language of plague, invasion and punishment that grew up around the disease, and how it deepened the stigma faced by the people who had it.
The Volcano Lover
Set mostly in Naples in the late eighteenth century, it follows Sir William Hamilton, the British envoy and collector (called “the Cavaliere”), his second wife Emma and her affair with Admiral Nelson, against the background of Vesuvius and the revolution of 1799. It became a bestseller, her first in fiction.
Alice in Bed
A play in eight scenes about Alice James, sister of William and Henry James, who spent much of her life as an invalid. In its central scene she holds an imaginary tea party with Emily Dickinson, Margaret Fuller and figures from opera and ballet. It premiered in Bonn in 1991 and was published in 1993.
In America
Maryna Zalewska, the most celebrated actress in Poland, emigrates in 1876 with her husband, son and a group of friends to found a utopian commune in southern California; when it fails she returns to the stage and remakes herself as an American star. The character is based on the actress Helena Modjeska. It won the National Book Award for Fiction.
Regarding the Pain of Others
A book-length essay on images of war and atrocity, from Goya’s Disasters of War to the photographs of her own time. Revisiting On Photography, she now doubts her earlier claim that repeated exposure simply numbs the viewer, and asks what looking at other people’s suffering can and cannot do.
At the Same Time
Essays and speeches from her last years, published after her death with a foreword by her son, David Rieff. It includes her writing on Abu Ghraib, “Literature Is Freedom”, the speech she gave on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2003, and her last lecture, on the novelist and moral reasoning.
In What Order to Read Susan Sontag
None of her books depend on one another, so you can follow your interest. Two pairs are best read together, because in each the later book answers the earlier one: On Photography (1977) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), and Illness as Metaphor (1978) and AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989).
The essays are where most readers begin, and the early novels are the hardest going. If you come for fiction, start with The Volcano Lover or In America and only then go back to The Benefactor and Death Kit.
A reading path
1. Against Interpretation (1966)
2. On Photography (1977)
3. Illness as Metaphor (1978)
4. The Volcano Lover (1992)
5. Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)
Everything Else Susan Sontag Published
Beyond the 14 key books: 7 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Essays and collections
3
3 books · 1968–2001
- 1968Trip to Hanoiher account of North Vietnam, published on its own before Styles of Radical Will
- 1982A Susan Sontag Readera selection she made from her own work
- 2001Where the Stress Fallsessays from the 1980s and 1990s, including her Sarajevo pieces
Posthumous
4
4 books · 2008–2023
- 2008Rebornjournals and notebooks, 1947–1963, edited by David Rieff
- 2012As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Fleshjournals and notebooks, 1964–1980
- 2017Storiesher collected short fiction
- 2023On Womenher essays on women, beauty and ageing
The years · 1933–2004
Quick facts about Susan Sontag
- Known for
- Essays that changed how people talk about taste, photography and illness, from “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964) to On Photography (1977) and Illness as Metaphor (1978).
- 1933
- Born Susan Rosenblatt in New York
- 1964
- “Notes on ‘Camp’”
- 1977
- On Photography
- 1993
- Stages Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo
- 2004
- Dies in New York
- Born
- 16 January 1933, New York City, as Susan Rosenblatt; she took her stepfather’s surname
- Education
- University of Chicago (BA at 18); MA in philosophy, Harvard
- Married
- Philip Rieff, 1950, divorced late 1950s; their son is the writer David Rieff
- Honours
- National Book Award (2000), Jerusalem Prize (2001), Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (2003)
- Also
- Directed films and plays, including Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo in 1993
- Died
- 28 December 2004, New York; buried in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris
The red mark is 1977: On Photography, her best-known book.
How Susan Sontag Writes: Arguments in Fragments
Sontag often thought in numbered notes and short sections rather than in one continuous argument. “Notes on ‘Camp’” is fifty-eight numbered points; On Photography ends with an anthology of quotations; much of Illness as Metaphor moves by setting one example against another. Her sentences are short, definite and often aphoristic, written to be quoted and argued with.
Her subjects are things everyone has an opinion about but few examine: taste, photographs, illness, war images. She treats popular and high culture with the same seriousness, and she was ready to reverse herself. Regarding the Pain of Others openly corrects claims she made in On Photography a quarter of a century earlier.
Her fiction moved the other way, from the cerebral, dream-like early novels to the historical sweep of The Volcano Lover and In America, though both late novels still stop for essay-like reflection. For writers who think on the page in a similar way, see Authors like Susan Sontag.
Listen
Susan Sontag on In America with Charlie Rose
Susan Sontag talks with Charlie Rose on 16 May 2000 about her novel In America. From the archive of Charlie Rose.
Frequently asked questions about Susan Sontag’s books
Who is Susan Sontag?
An American essayist, critic, novelist and film-maker (1933–2004), born Susan Rosenblatt in New York. She is best known for “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964) and the books Against Interpretation, On Photography and Illness as Metaphor; her novel In America won the National Book Award in 2000.
How many books has Susan Sontag written?
About twenty, plus film scripts. This page lists twenty-one: the fourteen key books, from The Benefactor (1963) to At the Same Time (2007), and seven more, including her published journals and the collected Stories (2017).
What are Susan Sontag’s books in order?
The Benefactor (1963), Against Interpretation (1966), Death Kit (1967), Styles of Radical Will (1969), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978), I, etcetera (1978), Under the Sign of Saturn (1980), AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989), The Volcano Lover (1992), Alice in Bed (1993), In America (2000), Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) and At the Same Time (2007).
Where should I start with Susan Sontag?
With Against Interpretation (1966), which contains “Notes on ‘Camp’” and the title essay. If photography is what draws you, start with On Photography (1977) and follow it with Regarding the Pain of Others (2003).
What is Susan Sontag’s most famous book?
On Photography (1977), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her single most famous essay is “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964), collected in Against Interpretation.
What is “camp” according to Susan Sontag?
In “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964) she describes camp as a sensibility that loves artifice and exaggeration, values style over content, and can enjoy things that fail by conventional standards of taste. The essay is a list of fifty-eight numbered notes, dedicated to Oscar Wilde. It gave the theme to the Met Gala and the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition in 2019.
What does Susan Sontag say about photography?
In On Photography (1977) she argues that photographs turn experience into something to collect, that their apparent objectivity hides choices about framing, and that a flood of images can blunt our response to suffering. In Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) she revised that last point.
What prizes did Susan Sontag win?
The National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1977), a MacArthur Fellowship (1990), the National Book Award for Fiction for In America (2000), the Jerusalem Prize (2001), and in 2003 both the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.
Was Susan Sontag controversial?
Several times. After the attacks of 11 September 2001 she wrote in The New Yorker that they were not a “cowardly” attack on civilisation but a consequence of American policy, a piece that drew angry criticism. In 2000 the researcher Ellen Lee found at least twelve passages in In America that closely followed four books about Helena Modjeska without attribution; Sontag replied that writers using historical sources adapt them, and that she had completely transformed hers.
Did Susan Sontag make films?
Yes. She wrote and directed Duet for Cannibals (1969) and Brother Carl (1971) in Sweden, the documentary Promised Lands (1974) in Israel, and Unguided Tour (1983) in Venice. She was not a photographer, though she wrote about photography all her life.
Did Susan Sontag have children?
One son, the writer David Rieff, born in 1952 from her marriage to the sociologist Philip Rieff. He edited her journals and wrote Swimming in a Sea of Death (2008) about her last illness.
Was Susan Sontag in relationships with women?
Yes. Her relationships included the playwright María Irene Fornés, around 1959–1963, the actress and producer Nicole Stéphane in the 1970s, and the photographer Annie Leibovitz, from 1989 until Sontag’s death. She did not publicly define the relationship with Leibovitz during her lifetime.
Was Susan Sontag a feminist?
She wrote on women’s lives, for example in “The Double Standard of Aging” (1972) and “A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?” (1975), collected in On Women (2023). But she also argued with parts of the women’s movement, notably in a 1975 exchange with Adrienne Rich, and did not want to be read mainly as a feminist writer.
When and how did Susan Sontag die?
On 28 December 2004 in New York, aged 71, of complications of myelodysplastic syndrome that had developed into acute myelogenous leukaemia. She had survived breast cancer in the 1970s and uterine cancer in the late 1990s.
Where is Susan Sontag buried?
In the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris, a city where she had lived for long stretches.
Footnotes
- Susan Sontag — Wikipedia
- In America (novel) — Wikipedia
- Susan Sontag — Encyclopædia Britannica
- Susan Sontag — Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 2003
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.”
— Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (1978), the opening lines
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