Susan Sontag has died, aged 71. She was born in here in New York, and died here.

She was one of the only "public intellectuals" I regularly encountered in New York, as she was someone, as James and I are, voraciously interested in art of all kinds, especially when it was new, or rare. I would see her at a BAM performance of Frankfurt Ballet, or at an obscure play in the East Village, or at an art exhibit related to the siege of Sarajevo at the New York Kunsthalle on East 5th Street.

We have one signed book of hers, but I will let James tell that story.