REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 126 pages. Book-length essay on subject. The author's last book. Now considered a contemporary classic. Review Copy. Review Material laid-in. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which there are several. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Susan Sontag's "Regarding The Pain of Others". A brilliant, melancholy meditation on war photography. The sequel-of-sorts to "On Photography" (1977), Sontag revisits some of the same issues she raised in her earlier book, and subjects them to renewed scrutiny. While relatively short, it ranges nimbly across a breadth of cultural and intellectual references. She re-evaluates positively what photography can do to create awareness, arouse indignation and sympathy, and make people act on the basis of images (rather than narrative accounts) of other people's suffering. As such, like its predecessor, it is an ethics of photography, which is why both are widely misunderstood, as photography = idealized beauty for most photographers and viewers. Her tough-minded re-evaluation of her own work is something both critics and admirers of Susan Sontag have come to expect from her. She was the intellectual par excellence, who never hesitated to change her mind. Were it not for her formidable intellect, her agonizing self-examination would be merely of passing, topical interest. Intentionally or not, this is her final statement on ethics and its inescapable, co-equal power, aesthetics. An absolute "must-have" title for Susan Sontag collectors. This is a Review Copy. The Review Material is laid-in. It is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the half-title page (her preferred page) by Susan Sontag. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. This is the only such signed Review Copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing 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. 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 0374248583.