Private lives.

I was dismayed to see the article about Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag by Carl Rollyson in your November 21 issue ["What's in a Word?"]. Rellyson's previous biography, Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon, manages to take one of the top writers in the United States in the 20th century and write about her life as though he were writing in People magazine. Flash-forward seven years, and we have Rollyson quoting the poet Edward Field for unsubstantiated gossip about Ms. Sontag and Ms. Leibovitz. Rellyson only shows the limits to identity politics. Is it possible to be a major, influential gay or lesbian thinker and not totally divulge every detail about one's sexual and romantic life? I think in this case the answer is yes--even gay and lesbian people deserve privacy. Even more important, gay and lesbian people deserve to be judged on their work and not to be trivialized when their work is judged. About the conception of Ms. Leibevitz's child, maybe in the future we can hear about the conception of Mary Shelley and her parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. That way we can add to the fullness of Wollstonecraft's reputation, because after all, she had only A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to fall back on.

K. FERRIS San Antonio, Texas