Joan Didion, unsurprisingly, took a lot of notes

March 29, 2025 2:30 AM

This extraordinary little looseleaf binder — undated, though one page makes reference to 1965 — may be among the the most revealing items in the collection. It’s a (seemingly but not really) random collection of quotes, thoughts, observations, and other bits of prose, mostly likely just Didion’s “I might want to use this” file. (They’re mostly typewritten, though one bears the handwritten addition “what am I saying here.”) Mann remarked to me that it’s a lot like the “commonplace books” that many 19th- and early 20th-century authors kept. from A First Look Into the Joan Didion Archives [Vulture; ungated]
posted by chavenet (3 comments total)

Thanks for this — started reading Didion this past year (I know, late to the game) and am looking forward to digging in to the article.
posted by aldus_manutius at 3:05 AM on March 29 [1 favorite]

Thanks so much for drawing attention to this article. I love digging into writers' notes and archives like this, and I would not have found this piece myself.
posted by rpfields at 8:34 AM on March 29 [2 favorites]

"I have come to the conclusion that I dislike people who can play the ukulele.”
posted by clavdivs at 7:54 PM on March 29 [1 favorite]