South and West: From A Notebook

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South and West: From A Notebook
Joan Didion

From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks–writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer.Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articlesHere is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through.And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage.

Copyright (#u637f135e-7268-5cd6-be5c-bf37e7401e9a)

4th Estate

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2017

Copyright © 2017 by Joan Didion

Foreword copyright © 2017 by Nathaniel Rich

Joan Didion photograph © Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

Joan Didion asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008257170

Ebook Edition © April 2017 ISBN: 9780008257187

Version: 2018-01-09

Contents

Cover (#u054b79b9-c047-58a2-abd8-802b11757f31)

Title Page (#u26256e34-0d7f-5e9a-8986-0b7c1f3a0f47)

Copyright

Dedication

Foreword by Nathaniel Rich

Notes on the South

California Notes

Also by Joan Didion

A Note About the Author

About the Publisher

Dedication (#u637f135e-7268-5cd6-be5c-bf37e7401e9a)

For John and Quintana

and for Earl