Janis Ian was first catapulted into the national spotlight in 1966, when she was just 15 years old, on the strength of her hit single “Society’s Child,” a stirring song that tackled the then-controversial subject of an interracial relationship.

She scored big again in 1974, when her folk-pop hit “At Seventeen” became a source of comfort to teenage girls — and boys, for that matter — who were trying to fit in and win acceptance. Ian also performed that song on the first-ever episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

In more recent years, however, Ian has maintained a lower profile, even as she’s continued to release albums full of smart, literate, poignant, insightful songs — and has been happy to play to her audience of loyal, discriminating fans — even though she has not been a presence on the mainstream pop charts in many years.

Her public profile got a bump last year, though, with the release of her book, “Society’s Child: My Autobiography”; followed by “Best of Janis Ian - The Autobiography Collection,” a two-disc retrospective that also included several previously unreleased bonus tracks. Then, this September the book came out in paperback, concurrent with the rerelease of the anthology, retitled "The Essential Janis Ian." This version was released on the major-label Sony Legacy imprint, which means it had some marketing muscle behind it.

Spanning Ian’s 40-plus-years career, the compilation includes the aforementioned mega-hits, plus such faves as “Hair of Spun Gold,” “Jesse,” “God & the FBI,” “Through the Years,” “Stolen Fire,” “Fly Too High” and “Love is Blind.” The bonus tracks include some never-heard songs as well as re-recorded versions of a few tunes (plus the original worktape of “Hair of Spun Gold,” the first song she wrote.)

Meanwhile, Ian — who comes to The Ark on Saturday — says that she “wanted the book to be as much about the times I’ve lived in as it was about me. I started young, so I was always about 10 years younger than my contemporaries who were part of the music scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“So, I think I have a somewhat different slant on those eras. I think most people have a freshness of perspective when they’re in their 20s that they really can’t recapture after that,” says Ian by phone from the remote Alligator Point, Florida, where she was vacationing before launching her current tour.

In the book, Ian writes frankly about the various travails she has faced — the shock of her parents’ divorce, the abusive relationships she endured, her own divorce, her health problems/surgeries, and how she lost her entire savings and home to an unscrupulous business manager. She also talks about her nine-year hiatus from the music business to study theater with Stella Adler.

As for whittling down her huge catalog of songs to a workable, two-disc, 31-song anthology, Ian says she wanted to “put together a collection that fans would want to hear and would best represent my body of work to them.”

Actually, Ian had released the collection eight months earlier on her own small label, but her own operation doesn’t have anywhere near Sony’s marketing budget, so the Sony version is reaching a wider, more mainstream audience. “It was Sony who approached me, and they gave me full creative control, in terms of what songs would be on it, so I didn’t have to change anything.

“It does feel great to have the resources of a major label behind one of my projects again, but it’s also great that it’s on Sony’s Legacy division (which specializes in re-issues, anthologies and box sets),” she says. “So, it’s like a label within a label, and it’s a whole different kind of thing than the main company — so in a lot of ways it doesn’t feel like I was putting this out on a major.”

Some of Ian’s best-loved songs are the ones that are brimming with emotion — songs that are brooding, introspective, or, sometimes, heart-breaking. But she said that sifting through her songbook and culling the songs for the collection wasn’t an emotional experience. “Most of these songs are currently in my live repertoire,” says Ian. “That’s another benefit, I think, of being younger than my contemporaries. I’m still out there performing most nights, so these songs are always with me.” Listen to Janis Ian "My Tennessee Hills" (MP3).

She does say, though, that she was emotionally moved by her visits with her producer and engineer from her teen-year beginnings.

“That was nice, to see those guys and visit with them — to sort of come full-circle in your life. I talked to them a lot about the old times, and also wanted them to share their memories, to make sure we remembered things the same way,” says Ian. “That was partly so I didn’t say something inaccurate in an interview — or mis-remember something for my own convenience — which I think is something we all do, unintentionally.

“Like, I wanted to make sure that I was correct if I said I spent a particular evening hanging out with Jimi Hendrix,” she says — before adding, with a laugh: “As opposed to finding out later that he was actually in a different city on that night.”

PREVIEW Janis Ian Who: Folk-pop icon who got her start in the mid-‘60s when she was only in her mid-teens. What: Moving, thoughtful, smart and/or poignant songs that span her career of 40-plus years. Where: The Ark, 316 South Main Street. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. How much: $23. Details: 734-761-1451 or The Ark web site.

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.