“ We tell ourselves stories to hold out , ” wroteJoan Didion . In telling her story , the novelist , litterateur , screenwriter , and socialite roll up a vast repository of materials that are now in the possession of theNew York Public Library .
In January , the NYPLdisclosedit had obtained the former author ’s archive of personal correspondence , photos , enquiry materials , and assorted record , as well as those of her hubby , John Gregory Dunne . Collectively , they avail assemble a portrait of Didion ’s farsighted career as a philosopher and educatee of human nature .
draft and supplemental note for essays inThe White AlbumandSlouching Towards Bethlehemare included , as are the numerous drafts Didion and Dunne wrote for films like 1976’sA Star Is Bornand 1996’sUp tight and Personal . Letters convert with everyone from John Wayne to Jacqueline Onassis are preserve . The archive even begins at the beginning : with the step of a newly born Didion stamped on a 1934 hospital record .
Joan Didion commence her professional vocation as a copywriter forVoguemagazine , a job she turn to dislike ( “ I can scarcely wait to quit , ” she write in one letter ) . ButVoguealso give her an chance to see her byline in print with 1961’sessay“Self - Respect — Its Source , Its Power , ” which she write at the last minute to fill some empty pages in the publication . Because the layout was already set , Didion had to write it to agree an exact quality reckoning .
Books — including 1963’sRun River — accompany , as did 2005’sThe Year of Magical Thinking , a affecting memoir about the deaths of both her husband and their grownup daughter , Quintana Roo . Didion passed off in 2021 at the geezerhood of 87 .
The NYPL expects the archive , which spans 240 linear feet , to be available to the populace by 2025 .
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
