Beloved for her uniquely personal voice and her masterful ability to capture the mood of the culture with the sweep of her pen, Joan Didion remains a permanent influence and source of inspiration for artists, writers and creatives of all mediums. Dive into the world of this great American writer in Joan Didion: What She Means. A biographical exhibition in book form, author and curator Hilton Als has created a mosaic of visual media within these pages, which together explores Didion’s life and work and the feelings she generates in her readers and admirers. Inside, you’ll find a diverse collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs, film stills, movie posters, sketches and ephemera, which each illustrate a piece of her personal history or a cultural event that she wrote about. Interspersed throughout are brief essays from Als, which help to illuminate the connection between these images and Didion’s works, as well as three of Didion’s lesser-known texts — “In Praise of Unhung Wreaths and Love,” “Planting a Tree is Not a Way of Life” and “The Year of Hoping for Stage Magic” — which are anthologized here for the first time. A stunning tribute to one of the greatest storytellers of our time, Joan Didion: What She Means is the perfect addition to any art-lover or aspiring author’s coffee table. •9.25"W x .5"D x 13"H •by Hilton Als•foreword by Ann Philbin•various photographers•clothbound hardcover•128 pages
An exploration of the visual corollary to Didions life and work and the feeling that each generates in her admirers, detractors and criticsincluding artists from Helen Lundeberg to Diane Arbus, Betye Saar to Maren Hassinger, Vija Celmins and Andy Warhol In Joan Didion: What She Means, the writer and curator Hilton Als creates a mosaic that explores Didion's life and work and the feeling each generates in her admirers, detractors and critics. Arranged chronologically, the book highlights Didion's fascination with the two coasts that made her. As a Westerner transplanted to New York, Didion was able to look at her native land, its mores and fixed rules of behavior, with the loving and critical eyes of a daughter who got out and went back. (Didion and her late husband moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1964, where they worked as highly successful screenwriters, producing scripts for 1971's The Panic in Needle Park and 1976's A Star Is Born, among other works, before returning to New York 20 years later.) And from her New York perch, Didion was able to observe the political scene more closely, writing trenchant pieces about Clinton, El Salvador and most searingly the Central Park Five. The book includes more than 50 artists ranging from Brice Marden and Ed Ruscha to Betye Saar, Vija Clemins and many others, with works in all mediums including painting, ephemera, photography, sculpture, video and film. Also included are three previously uncollected texts by Didion: In Praise of Unhung Wreaths and Love (1969); a much-excerpted 1975 commencement address at UC Riverside; and The Year of Hoping for Stage Magic (2007).
Louis Menand on “The Last Love Song,” by Tracy Daugherty, and Didion’s evolution as a thinker—from “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” to “Where I Was From.”
If you want to write better, read everything and anything. Writer and journalist Joan Didion (December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021), curious as to the acuity about the technical act of writing read enough to formulate a list of her all-time favourite books. Given that too many people in power read one book, … Continue reading "Joan Didion Lists the Books That Make Her Write Better"
As shown by the frenzy over her Céline ads.
Every wonder how your favorite fictional character would decorate? Check out our design interpretations of our nine favorites
Joan Didion’s seminal 1961 Vogue essay on self-respect.
Il modo in cui Joan Didion ha impastato letteratura e giornalismo non ha cambiato solo il nostro modo di vivere, ma di vedere il mondo.
Joan Didion’s seminal 1961 Vogue essay on self-respect.
Play It as It Lays is a novel written by Joan Didion, first published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in 1970 with a book jacket designed by Janet Halverson. Bantam’s paperback edition followed in July 1971. The uncredited designer adopted the snake from Halverson’s design, but
Read sample
I copied my favorite writers’ schedules to see if their routines would offer the secret to unlocking my ultimate creative potential.
Self-respect holds a profound significance in our lives. One of the most thought-provoking pieces on self-respect was written by Joan Didion. She was an American writer and journalist, known as one of the pioneers of New Journalism. For Didion, the source of self-respect is a responsibility that exp
