[Under the Sign of Saturn] contains seven examples of the form in which Sontag first made her popular reputation and in which she still does her best work—the supple, graceful genre that used to be called the occasional essay. The pieces reprinted here were published at odd intervals between 1972 and 1980; two are brief personal memoirs (of Paul Goodman and Roland Barthes), two are mainly concerned with film (Leni Riefenstahl and Hans-Jurgen Syberberg), and the remaining three (on Antonin Artaud, Walter Benjamin, and Elias Canetti) belong to a venerable subgenre that the 19th century excelled in but the 20th has neglected, the "literary portrait."

For much of the past decade, Sontag worked in other forms: short fiction (I, etcetera), and full-length nonfiction (On Photography and Illness as Metaphor). She also directed a film (Promised Lands)….

I have … [followed Sontag's] criticism with interest and respect, and I think I...