Unforgettable Life Lessons From 5 of History's Smartest Female Writers

Thank to her 1964 essay "Notes on Camp," Sontag became one of the 1960s literary It girls. But creating and maintaining an image comes at a cost, and Sontag was ambivalent about her status as a celebrity, as only those who have it can be. "It follows you around mercilessly," she told an interviewer, "awkward, useless, essentially unrelated to the self."