AIDS AND ITS METAPHORS

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1989. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1989. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 95 pages. The author's book-length essay on subject. The sequel to the author's classic, "Illness As Metaphor". 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 "AIDS And Its Metaphors". A heartfelt yet scathing critical essay on the invented and punitive uses of AIDS as a metaphor in Western culture. As such, and more controversially, it is also a thoughtful re-appraisal of the Gay Liberation Movement's remarkable if hard-won successes over a relatively short period of time as well as its inevitable (and fully human) failures. Widely praised, debated, and criticized at the same time, it is to Sontag's credit that she stood by her positions and refused to be bowed by the surprisingly indignant criticism the book received, especially from some quarters of the gay community. Sontag wrote "Illness As Metaphor" in response to what would be the first of her three successive bouts with cancer. While its tone is coolly intellectual, every word is underlined by her illness, and is one of her most autobiographical works. "AIDS And Its Metaphors" is also necessary writing: Like many others in the New York artistic community, Sontag lost many friends and colleagues to AIDS. In the case of Paul Thek (to whom the book is dedicated) , she lost a former lover, a lifelong friend, and perhaps THE love of her life. A ground-breaking artist whose work is only now being belatedly recognized, Thek (also the dedicatee of "Against Interpretation", her career-defining, debut collection of essays) is also the inspiration for "The Way We Live Now" (1991) , Sontag's single best story, the finest American short story on AIDS. "You have to know when to let the old life go, and go on and not look back and have regrets. Otherwise you will always be sad, because you are always losing something. That's the way life is if you let misfortunes strike you too hard, you won't see the new chance coming" (Susan Sontag) . An absolute "must-have" title for Susan Sontag collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the front free endpaper by Susan Sontag. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. 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 collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER SUSAN SONTAG TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374102570.