signed first edition
1963 · New York
by [LITERATURE] SONTAG, Susan
New York: Farrar, Straus & Co, 1963. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (22cm); Black cloth over black paper-covered boards; dark gray topstain; titles in white and green on spine; xii,274pp. Inscribed on verso of front free endpaper: "For Hilton Kramer - Regards," signed by Sontag, undated but contemporary with publication. Laid-in is a Farrar, Straus & Cudahy "compliments of the author" card. Tight and straight, with topstain unfaded; endpapers have faded unevenly, as usual; few spots of soil to text block edges, still Near Fine. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $4.50 on front flap); toned and slightly soiled on lighter portions, with toning a shade deeper on spine panel; still quite presentable, easily Very Good. A tremendous association copy of Sontag's uncommon first book, inscribed at the beginning of her fiction-writing career to the critic who would become her greatest and most persistent adversary. Kramer (1928-2012) and Sontag worked together on the staff of Commentary. What was probably a cordial relationship with Kramer seems to have gone sour after the publication of her 1964 essay "Notes on Camp," which was her first contribution to the Partisan Review. "Hilton Kramer felt this did nothing less than open the floodgates to the "spiritual bankruptcy of the post-modern era." He thundered that Sontag "severed the links between high culture and high seriousness that had been a fundamental tenet of the modernist ethos. It released high culture from its obligation to be entirely serious, to insist on difficult standards, to sustain an attitude of unassailable rectitude...." He never forgave her" (Moser, Benjamin. Sontag: Her Life and Work, pp.232-233). He found her statements like "The white race is the cancer of human history" especially inflammatory, and continued to criticize her work and her politics for decades. [61639].
(Inventory #: 61639)