writers

From the desk of… Joan Didion



Joan Didion auction

Everyone’s talking about Joan Didion’s stuff.

The late writer’s personal effects are going up for auction at Stair Galleries this month and as is usual these days, there’s a forensic unpicking of the icon’s possessions as an insight into her mind and creative genius.

As a writer she was lauded for her minimalist prose and sharp cultural observations. As a woman she was admired for her self-assured independence and also a cool aloofness. That enigmatic quality no doubt adds to the interest in her possessions; a promised glimpse of ‘the real Joan Didion’. As Rachel Tashjian observes in Harper’s Bazaar, these vignettes present the “warmest portraits ever painted of her”. (more…)



Close up: Joan Didion



Joan Didion for Celine by Juergen Teller

Opening this week, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold is the documentary we’ve all been waiting for. Directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne and her grandniece Annabelle Dunne, it’s an intimate portrayal of the writer, but doesn’t dwell as much as some might have hoped on her style. (more…)