Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Herbert E. Nass, partner, Herbert E. Nass & Associates, New York and Norwalk, Conn.

By: By Herbert E. Nass, partner, Herbert E. Nass & Associates, New York and Norwalk, Conn.

Susan Sontag — social commentator, critic, activist and acclaimed writer — executed her last will and testament six months before she died on Dec. 28, 2004 at age 71. Her death, reportedly from complications of acute myelogenous leukemia, concluded a long battle with cancer, about which Sontag had waxed philosophical in her book, Illness as Metaphor. In her will, Sontag left a contingent bequest to her partner, the famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, but essentially left her entire estate to her only son, 52-year-old David Sontag Rieff, appointing him executor of her will and her approximately $3 million estate, according to the petition for probate filed with the New York County Surrogate's Court. In her will, she also expressly appoints David and her literary agent, Andrew Wylie, as co-”literary executors” of her will. But because the term “literary executor” is not found in any New York statute, and letters testamentary were not issued to Wylie by the court, his appointment may be a matter of “form over substance.”

Born Susan Rosenblatt on Jan. 16, 1933 in New York City, Sontag was married at 17, while still a sophomore in college, to her instructor, the then 28-year-old Philip Rieff. The couple moved to Boston while Sontag was a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University. She continued her studies at Oxford University and the University of Paris. Sontag apparently took to France because, despite being a U.S. citizen, her death certificate states that her remains were buried in Paris.

T&E Premium Content

To read the rest of this article, please login to our Premium Content section:

Registered Web Site Users
User Name:
Password:
Remember Me