REBORN: Early Diaries 1947-1964             By Susan Sontag (Hamish Hamilton) Hardback held at Parramatta – Katherine’s pick

Susan Sontag was one of the great intellectuals of her generation. She is considered an authority on American popular culture, she wrote books of essays, novels and a well known book on American photography.

Her son David edited her first diary and it is a fascinating account of the coming of age of a precious and brilliant mind. It begins when she is just 14yrs old and charts her impressions, thoughts and ambitions as a university student, her young married life, motherhood and finally he escape from a suffocating marriage. Finally it places her squarely into the mileu her future life will follow, that of intellectuals, free thinkers, academics, writers and artists, first in Paris and later in New York City. Sontag is fearlessly and rigorously honest to herself in these diaries and espouses her credo throughout which is” that the most important thing in the world is freedom to be true to oneself.

Sontag sadly died in 2004 having fulfilled most of her life’s ambitions. Always a great role model for young women, she proved that a satisfying and successful career could be forged in the world of letters, no matter who you where. Just as long as you believed in yourself and strived to be the best you could be. This publication is the 1st of three volumes.