AIDS and Its Metaphors
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989. 1st Edition. Octavo, publisher's slate blue cloth, spine stamped in silver, original printed dust jacket.
First edition, presentation-association copy, of Susan Sontag's follow-up to Illness As Metaphor (1978), examining the ways in which the metaphorization of AIDS in the cultural imagination leads to the shaming and stigmatization of its victims, from the library of New York novelist and memoirist Sigrid Nunez, inscribed to her by Sontag. Sontag deconstructs metaphors that figure AIDS as a type of invasion to be combatted, or a curse against particular segments of the body politic, namely gays and intravenous drug users, who might then be reasonably repressed. Presciently, Sontag notes that it ''is simply too early to conclude, of a disease identified only seven years ago, that infection will always produce something to die from, or even that everybody who has what is defined as AIDS will die of it.'' Inscribed by Sontag prior to publication to front endpaper in black ink: "for Sigrid, / with much love, as always - / Susan / Dec. 6, 1988." Nunez met Sontag in the spring of 1976, when she was hired to type her correspondence while Sontag was recovering from breast cancer surgery. During this time, Nunez began dating Sontag's son, the writer David Rieff, and moved into Sontag's apartment at 340 Riverside Drive, leading to an intimate but complex relationship with the towering cultural critic. Nunez's experiences during this time are described at length in her book-length portrait Sempre Susan (2011). Minor to edges of cloth; unclipped dust jacket with minor toning. Near fine. Item #13030
$400.00